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HARVARD 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS 



SECOND EDITION, THOROUGHLY REVISED 



BY 



MOSES KING 



COPIOUSL Y ILL USTRA TED 



HELIOTYPES, WOOD ENGRAVINGS, AND ETCHINGS 



CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 
MOSES KING, PUBLISHER 

(Harvard College) 
1878 



O t.-'o .'—^ 



-■\ — 



^-ib .^ ''^^' 



Copyright, 1878, 
By MOSES KING. 






Franklin Press : 

Rand, Avery, a^id Company y 

Boston. 

DESIGNS BY L. S. IPSEN. 

HELIOTYPES AND ZINC PLATES BY HELIOTYPE COMPANY- 

SKETCHES BY H. M. STEPHENSON. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This little handbook is designed to take the place of an intelligent com- 
panion to the visitor in his walk through Harvard and its historical vicinity, 
giving brief yet sufficiently definite descriptions of every place visited, with 
passing allusions to its leading historical and biographical associations, and 
devoting the larger proportion of space to the specially noteworthy objects. 

Our visitor is assumed to have arrived at Harvard College, which can be 
reached in half an hour from Boston, either by carriage or by the Cambridge 
horse cars that start from Bowdoin Square. 

The route proposed may be easily traced on the accompanying key plan — 
on next page — by following the numerical order; nevertheless, as correspond- 
ing numbers are attached to the description of each place in the book, an in- 
dependent course may be taken if one so desires. 

Whatever is most worth seeing is accessible to visitors without fees or 
restrictions, and no objection is offered to a quiet walk through any of the 
grounds or buildings, except the Observatory. 

An asterisk (*) is placed in the Index opposite to the most noteworthy 
places. A dagger (f) in the text signifies that the place is described in the 
'* Walk through Cambridge," page 63. 

Numbers in full-faced type, e. ^., (25), that occur throughout the book, 
refer, first, to the description of the place; second, to its number on the key 
plan ; and third, to the illustration pertaining to it, if there is any. 

No attempt is made to produce anything new; our object is merely to 
reproduce in a convenient and simple form that which is already known. 
Wherever we have found anything adapted to our purpose we have made use 
of it. We are specially indebted to the " Harvard Book," to Drake's " His- 
toric Fields and Mansions of Middlesex," and to Bev. William Newell, D. D., 
John Langdon Sibley, and Bev. A. P. Peabody, D. D. Want of space permits 
only a general acknowledgment of our indebtedness to the various other sources 
from which information has been derived. 



INDEX. 



The number in the first column indicates : 1st. The position of each place on the key plan (pa^e 
4); 2d, the consecutive number prefixed to the various places 'described in the book ; 3d, the cor- 
responding illustration. The number in the second column gives the page on which the description 
may be found. 

The (*) asterisk points out to the visitor whose time is limited the specially noteworthy places. 



NO. PAGE 

18 
29 
79 
48 
56 



Annual Expenditure 

*Appleton Chapel ...... 12 

Arsenal, The State 47 

Athletic Association, Harvard . 29 

Astronomical Observatory ... 49 

Base Ball Club, H. U. ... 27 44 

*BeckHall 34 64 

Bishop's Palace 36 66 

Boat Club, H. U 30 49 

Boat House 30 49 

*Botanic Garden 48* 55 

*Boylston Hall 7 23 

Brattle House ....... 60 88 

Brookline Bridge Route ... 65 91 

*Bassey Institution 59 

Cambridge Common .... 42a 74 

*Christ Church 42 72 

City Building, New .... 61 89 

Class Day Tree 17 32 

College House 39 54 

Dana House . 33 53 

*Dane Hall 4 22 

Dental School 59 

^Divinitv Hall 23 39 



NO. 


PAGE 




18 




15 


26 


44 


50 


79 


55 


85 



Education, Cost of .... 

Elective System , 

Elevation of Projected Museum 

Elmwood 

^Episcopal Theological School 



Fayerweather House .... 51 81 

*Felton Building 31 63 

First Parish Church .... 40 69 

Foot Ball Club, H. U 28 47 

*GoreHall 8 24 

Government of the University . 14 

Graduates, Number of ... . 14 

*GraysHail 6 23 

^Gymnasium, The ..... 29 48 

Gymnasium, The New .... 49 

Harvard College, History of . . 11 

^Harvard Hall 2 21 

Harvard Monument 11 

Hicks House .62 89 

*Holden Chapel 15 31 

*HollisHall 16 32 

Holmes Field . . . . 28 47 

Holmes House 18 33 

^Holworthy Hall 13 29 



INDEX. 



NO. PAGE 

*Holyoke House 37 53 

Hotel Brunswick 66 92 

Instruction at twenty colleges . 16 

Introduction 3 

Jarvis Field 27 44 

Kej- Plan 4 

Law School (Dane Hall) ... 4 22 

*Lawrence Hall 57 87 

*Lawrence Scientific School . . 20 36 

Lee House 52 82 

Library (Gore Hall) ... - 8 24 

*Little's Block 38 67 

^Longfellow's Home 54 84 

*Lo well's Homestead 50 79 

*Massachusetts Hall 1 19 

*Matthews Hall 3 21 

*Medical School 57 

*Memorial Hall 22 37 

*Memorial Hall Transept ... 22 38 
*Mount Auburn Cemetery . . . 50a 80 

*Museum of Comparative Zoology 25 41 

*01d Cambridge Baptist Church . 35 65 

Old Mile Stone 63 

Old President's Chair .... 28 

*01d President's House .... 5 22 

*Peabody Museum of Am. A & E. 24 40 

Pecuniary Aid for Students . . 17 

President's House 32 52 

Presidents of Harvard, List of . 13 

Projected Museum, The .... 26 43 

Projected Museum, Ground Plan of 26 43 



KG. PA A 

Quadrangle, The 20 

*Reed Hall 58 87 

Reservoir, The 49a 79 

Riedesel House, The 53 83 

Riverside Press 64 90 

*Sanders Theatre 22 37 

Seal of Cambridge 61 

Seal of Harvard University . . 9 

Sever Hall 60 

Shepard Memorial Church . . 44 76 

Society Hall 21 36 

*Soldiers' Monument .... 43 75 

*St. John's Memorial Chapel . . 56 85 

*Stoughton Hall 14 30 

St. Paul's Church .' 63 90 

Students, Number of ... . 15 

Students, Sources of Supply of . 16 i 

Teachers, Xumber of 15 

Thaver Commons Hall . <, . . 19 34 

*Thayer Hall H 29 

*Town Burying Ground , . . 41 71 

University Book Store .... 38 68 

*University Hall 10 27 

University Press o 60 89 

*Vassal House . . . » . . . 59 87 

Wadsworth House 5 22 

Walk through Cambridge • • • ^^ 

Walk through Harvard .... 19 

* Washington Elm 45 70 

Washington's Head-quarters . . 54 84 

Waterhouse House , .... 46 78 

*WeldHall .... 9 ^0 

Zoological Hall ...... 21 36 



LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The first column indicates the number of the description. It also refers to the position of each 
place on the key plan on page 4. The second column indicates the page of the illustration. 

HELIOTYPES. 

NO. PAGE 

Appleton Chapel . 12 30 

Astronomical Observatory 49 56 

Beciv Hall 34 64 

Boat House ... . .30 48 

Botanic Garden ,48 56 

BoYLSTON Hall 7 26 

BussEY Institution 58 

College House 39 54 

Dane Hall 4 22 

Divinity School ,....., 23 40 

Felton Building » . 31 68 

Gore Hall 8 26 

Grays Hall 6 24 

Gymnasium 29 48 

Hakvard Art Club 6 32 

Hakvakd Hall 2 19 

HoLLis Hall 16 34 

Holworthy Hall 13 32 

Holyoke House 37 52 

Hotel Brunswick, Boston 66 92 

Lawrence Scientific School 20 40 

Little's Block 38 68 

Massachusetts Hall 1 19 

Matthews Hall 3 22 

Medical School 58 

Memorial Hall and Sanders Theatre 22 Front. 

^Memorial Dining Hall (Interior View) 22 38 

Museum of Comparative Zoology 25 42 

Old President's (Wadsworth) House , 5 24 



8 LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. 

HELIOTYPES —Conthued. 

NO. PA61 

Peabody Museum of American Archeology . c . . o . 24 A% 

President's House 32 54 

Room No. 31, Beck Hall . . . . . . . ' . . .34 64 

Room No. 9, Holyoke House 37 52 

Stoughton Hall 14 34 

Thayer Hall 11 30 

University Hall 10 28 

Weld Hall 9 28 

WOOD ENGRAVINGS. 

Protestant Episcopal Theological School of Massachusetts . 55 86 

Shepard Memorial Church and Washington Elm . . . . 44, 45 77 

The Quadrangle of Harvard College 20 j 

HALF TITLES. 

Seal of Cambridge ,,.,.. 6l 

Seal of Harvard University o . . , , , , , , .9 



A GLANCE AT ITS HISTORY. 



^N^P^^ 



^ARVAKD COLLEGE was founded in 1636. 
At that time the General Court of the Col- 
ony of Massachusetts Bay voted to give £400 
for the endowment of a college, and in the 
following year it was ordered that the col- 
lege should be established at " Newetowne," 
— the governor, deputy -governor, and ten 
others being appointed to take charge of the 
enterprise. It is by no means certain that 
the appropriation by the government was ever 
paid; but it undoubtedly gave both stimulus 
and direction to private munificence, which 
seems to have been called forth in gifts insig- 
nificant by our standard, yet large as measured 
by the poverty of the infant settlement. A 
school was opened under the superintendence 
of Nathaniel Eaton. It does not appear that he had any as.^istant, nor is 
there any evidence extant of his scholarly capacity or attainments. The 
students boarded in his family, and seem to have suffered equally from his 
parsimony and his tyranny. 

1 The monument that bears the name " Harvard,'- erected in Charlestown, is explained by the 
inscription on the eastern side, which reads as follows : " On the 26th day of September, a. d. 1828, 
this stone was erected by the Graduates of the University in Cambridge, in honor of its Founder, 
who died at Charlestown, on the 26th day of September, a. d. 1638.'' On the western side is a 
long Latin inscription. 




Harvard's Monument 



12 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

In 1638 Rev. John Harvard, a graduate of Cambridge, England, died in 
Charlestown, leaving to the college just coming into being his entire library 
and one half of his estate. This sum, probably not far from £700, exceeded 
the aggregate of all other donations, and in grateful remembrance of its 
chief benefactor the college was called by his name, while its site was renamed 
after the seat of learning at which he and not a few of his fellow-immi- 
grants had been educated. Shortly after Harvard's death Eaton was dis- 
missed, and the building that had been commenced under his direction was 
completed under the supervision of a member of the board of control. 

In 1640 Rev. Henry Dunster was made president of the college, which 
from that time onward may be regarded as a literary institution, organized and 
conducted with the purpose of meeting the reasonable demands of the age 
and the community. 

The early presidents of the college were men of superior learning for their 
time; the range of studies was limited, the number of students small (for the 
first fifty years seldom exceeding twenty), and, though there may have been 
occasional assistant teachers, there was no permanent professor or tutor till 
the close of the century. The prescribed course of study comprehended 
some of the best known Latin and Greek authors, more Hebrew than is now 
learned at our divinity schools, logic and philosophy as then taught in the 
English universities, the mere elements of mathematics, and, above all, the 
holy Scriptures and Christian theology as understood by the New England 
churches. 

The first tutor was the venerable Henry Flynt, appointed in 1699, who re- 
mained in office and resident within college walls for fifty-five years. The 
first professor was the elder Edward Wigglesworth, who, in 1721, was ap- 
pointed professor of divinity on a foundation endowed by Thomas Hollis, 
with the then ample income of £40 a year. 

During the greater portion of the last century the college was identified 
with the liberal party in church and state, and could not but bear a prom- 
inent part in the movements preceding and accompanying the revolution in 
which the country declared and achieved its independence. In 17 75 the 
library and classes were removed to Concord, the college halls given up to the 
use of the provincial army, and the president's house offered, and for a short 
time occupied, as head-quarters for the commander-in-chief; while the presi- 
dent himself — an ardent patriot — served as chaplain to the troops on numer- 
ous occasions, and notably on the eve of the battle of Bunker Hill. 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 



13 



After the evacuation of Boston by the British the college resumed its ses- 
sions in Cambridge, and maintained for the ensuing thirty years or more a 
high but hardly growing reputation as a seat of learning. Its era of active 
and incessant progress may be said to have begun with the presidency of Dr. 
Kirkland, in 1810. Since that period there has been among its professors a 
spirit of literary and scientific energy and enterprise, among its students a 
just and high ambition, and in the public a generosity corresponding to the 
ever-growing and always urgent needs of an institution that aims to keep 
abreast with the ripest thought and learning of its time. 

Of the large endowments which now sustain numerous professorships and 
supply the means of support for more than one hundred students, and also of 
the funds invested in the buildings, library, observatory, botanic garden, and 
collections in various departments of science and art, almost the entire amount 
has accrued from private liberality. The gifts of the colonial and provincial 
governments were scanty and for specific and temporary uses, if we except 
the erection of several college buildings. The principal gift of the State of 
Massachusetts was a grant of $10,000 a year for ten years, voted in 1814. Of 
this sum $25,000 passed into the hands of poor students, $21,400 were ap- 
plied to the erection of a medical college in Boston, and the residue was ex- 
pended in building University Hall, which thus remains the chief enduring 
monument of State generosity. 

The following list gives the names and terms of the presidents of the col- 
lege from its foundation : — 

Henry Dunster, 1640-1654. 
Charles Chauncy, 1654-1671. 
Leonard Hoar, 1672-1674. 
Uriah Oakes, 1675-1681. 
John Rogers, 1682-1684. 
Increase Mather, 1685-1701. 
Samuel Willard, 1701-1707. 
John Leverett, 1707-1724. 
Benjamin Wads worth, 1725-1736. 
Edward Holyoke, 1737-1769. 
Samuel Locke, 1770-1773. 



Samuel Langdon, 1774-1780. 
Joseph Willard, 1781-1804. 
Samuel Webber, 1806-1810. 
John Thornton Kirkland, 1810-1828. 
Josiah Quincy, 1829-1845. 
Edward Everett, 1846-1849. 
Jared Sparks, 1849-1853. 
James Walker, 1853-1860. 
Cornelius Conway Felton, 1860-1862. 
Thomas Hill, 1862-1868. 



In 1869 Charles William Eliot was elected president, and has filled the 
executive chair since that time. 



14 HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 

The government of the university may be briefly described as follows: The 
legal title of the corporation is the ' ' President and Fellows of Harvard Col- 
lege." The Corporation [consisting of the President, Fellows (five in num- 
ber), and Treasurer], and the Board of Overseers (thirty -two in number), arc 
the governing powers of the university, which comprehends the following de- 
partments : Harvard College, the Divinity School, the Law School, the Med- 
ical School, the Dental School, the Lawrence Scientific School, the Museum 
of Comparative Zoology, the Bussey Institution (a school of agriculture)^ 
the College Library, and the Astronomical Observatory. The Peabody Mu- 
seum of American Archaeology and Ethnology is a constituent part of the 
university; but its relations to it are affected by peculiar previsions. 

The jjresident is purely an administrative officer and presides over the cor- 
poration, board of overseers, and faculties of the various departments; the 
treasurer has the custody of the property of the university ; the academic coun- 
cil, consisting of the president, professors, and assistant professors of the uni 
versity, recommend the candidates for the degrees of master of arts, doctor ol 
science, and doctor of philosophy; the faculty of each department has the 
immediate charge of it; a dea7i is appointed for each faculty, of which he is 
in fact vice-president; the registrar is the medium between the student and the 
college faculty, and keeps the records of that faculty and of the admission, 
attendance, and conduct of the students, superintends examinations, prepares 
all scales of scholarship, and is chairman of the parietal committee; the parietal 
committee, formed of the proctors and officers of instruction who reside within 
the college buildings, takes cognizance of offenses by students against good 
order and decorum; the hursar is the treasurer's agent at Cambridge, and re- 
ceives the bonds and collects the amounts due from students; the curators of 
the museums, the director of the observatory, and the director of the botanic 
garden have charge of their respective departments; the secretary of the board 
of overseers keeps its records, etc., and the secretaries of the various depart- 
ments are the assistants of the deans; the proctors are the academical police 
officers; the officers of instruction and government include the professors, as- 
sistant professors, tutors, instructors, and proctors. There are many other 
officers, but these are the most important. 

The whole number upon whom degrees have been conferred by Harvard 
University before 1875 was 12,812. To the present year there have been of 
the college, 9,175 graduates j of the law school, 1,988 ; and of the medical school, 
2,255. 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 



15 



The following table shows the number of students in the university, and in 
its several departments, at four periods taken ten years apart : — 



Year. 

1846-47 . 
1856-57 . 
1866-67 . 
1876-77 . 



College. 


Divinity 
School. 


Law 
School. 


Medical 
School. 


Scientij&c 
School. 


Other 
Students. 


272 


31 


132 


159 




17 


382 


22 


109 


122 


57 


3 


419 


15 


157 


301 


60 


7 


821 


23 


187 


226 


29 


84 



Whole 
Univer- 
sity. 

611 

695 

959 

1,370 



The preceding table shows that the number of students in the whole uni- 
versity rather more than doubled in thirty years. It is interesting to observe 
the increase in the number of teachers within the same period : — 

1846-47. 1876-77. 

Professors 19 51 

Assistant Professors 21 

Lecturers 3 

Tutors 4 7 

Instructors 2 30 

Assistants 12 

Whole number of teachers .... — 25 — 124 

Librarians, Proctors, and other officers . . 10 24 

The following extract and table is taken from Charles F. Thwing's article 
on College Instruction, in a recent number of '' Scribner's Monthly." It will 
be interesting to observe the comparison of Harvard with the other colleges. 

"Though a few elective or 'exchange' courses of instruction have been 
for years offered by most colleges, it was not till the accession of the pres- 
ent president of Harvard that the system of elective studies was introduced. 
Though introduced at Harvard in the face of much opposition, the system 
has, by its intellectual and moral advantages, converted opposition into stanch 
support. It constantly grows in popularity with both professors and students, 
and each year the number of elective courses is increased and their scope en- 
larged. At this time (1876-77) 99 elective courses are offered, providing 263 
recitations a week. The liberty of choice is shown by the fact that one can, 
during his course, take, as regular studies for a degree, only 34 of the 263 
hours of electives. 



i6 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



* ' The following table shows the number of hours of instruction a week 
given in the principal studies by twenty colleges. Both prescribed and elect- 
ive studies are included in the estimate.'^ 



Amherst . 
Boston . . 
Bovvdoin . 
California . 
Cornell . . 
Dartmouth 
Hamilton . 
Harvard . 
Michigan . 
Middlebury 
New York 
Northwestern 
Oberlin 
Princeton 
Trinity 
Vassar . 
Vermont 
Virginia 
Weslevan 
Yale " . . 



Classics, 
Ancient 

Lan- 
guages. 


Mathe- 
matics. 


Modern 

Lan- 
guages. 


! 

Science. 


21f 


101 


9 


17f 


25 


6 


16 


10 


21^ 


7i 


11 


12^ 


26 


6 


13 


14 


32 


12 


10 


10 


20 


10 


4 


12 


22 


11 


2f 


10 


64 


29 


64 


68 


28 


12 


15 


32 


18 


10 


4 


13 


24 


12 


2 


18 


22 


7 


15 


13^ 


24 


12 


10 


13i 


30 


9 


7 


15 


23 


6J 


9 


12i 


27i 


81 


21 


3l| 


21 


12 


12 


15 


15 


19 


13 


22 


26 


10 


11 


27 


38 


17 


19 


25 



Philos- 



6! 
12 

8i 

9 

10 
10 
10 
20 

9 
11 

8 

7 
12 
10 

9 
10 

9 

4 
20 
14 



5 
8 
6 

10 
2 

28 
8 
4 
6 

4f 
1 
2 
4 
2 
6 
4 
5 
6 



Fine 

Arts. 



1 










18 









1 





17i 
! 









Total 
each 
week. 



71f 

78 

66 

68 

84 

58 

m\ 

291 

104 
60 
70 
69 
73i 
73 
64 

118 
75f 
77 
99 

119 



The preceding table shows that the number of hours of instruction each 
week at Harvard greatly exceeds that of any other two colleges combined. 
The average number of hours each week at the colleges mentioned above is 
781 ; at Harvard it is 291. 

The sources of supply of students to Harvard College are not quite the 
same from year to year; yet the proportions of the numbers of persons who 
come from public schools, endowed schools, private schools, private tutors, 
and colleges respectively change but slowly. The number of schools and col- 
leges from which young men actually entered Harvard College in 1877 was 
fifty-five. Of these, the following, arranged alphabetically, are in the first 
rank as regards the number of scholars prepared for college : — 



Adams Academy, Quincy.i 
Boston Latin School, Boston. 



Brookline High School, Brookline. 
Cambridge High School, Cambridge. 



^ The places named are in Massachusetts unless otherwise stated. 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 



Chauncy Hall School, Boston. 

Eayrs, AYm. N., private school, Boston. 

Friends' Academy, New Bedford. 

Hopkinson, J. P., private school, Boston. 

Kendall, J., private school, Cambridge. 

Newton High School, Newton. 

Noble, G. W. C. private school, Boston. 

Phillips Academy, Andover. 

Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N. H. 



Roxbury Latin School, Roxbur}-. 
St. Mark's School, Southborough. 
St. Paul's School, C(mcord, N. H. 
Salem High School, Salem. 
San Francisco Boys' High School, 

Francisco, Cal. 
Somerville High School, Somerville. 
Williston Seminar}^, Easthampton. 
Worcester High School, Worcester. 



17 



San 



It is generally understood that good scholars of high character but slender 
means are seldom or never obliged to leave the university for want of money. 

To aid worthy students, 124 scholarships have been established, varying in 
their annual income from S40 to S350. 

Deserving students can also obtain pecuniary aid from various funds, such 
as beneficiary money, loan fund, fellowships, monitorships, and prizes. Gen- 
erous persons are constantly adding to these funds, which seem to keep pace 
with the general advance of the university. This is evident from the fol- 
lowing table, which exhibits the amounts paid to students during the years 
1866-67 and 1876-77. It will be seen that the amount has considerably more 
than doubled within ten years. 



College Scholarships 

" Beneficiary Money . 

'' Loan Fund 

Divinity School Scholarships 

" " from charity of Edward Hopkins 

" " Beneficiar}^ Money 

" " from the Williams Fund 1 . . . 

Law School Scholarships 

Medical School Scholarships 

Lawrence Scientific School Scholarships . . . ! 
Fellowships 



1866-67. 



$10,019.00 

2,368.74 

880.00 

2,400 00 
885.00 

1,600.00 
150.00 



$18,302.74 



1876-77. 



$25,963.86 

907.25 

2,720.00 

1,820 00 

2,310.00 

339.84 

1,450.00 

450.00 

800.00 

600.00 

4,223.47 



41,584.42 



1 The Williams Fund can provide twenty scholarships of $150 each. Part of it is uncalled for. 
2 



i8 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



It is not an unknown thing for a penniless freshman to carry off the high- 
est honors at the end of his course, after sustaining himself by the pecuniary 
rewards offered to high scholarship and his earnings in other ways. 

The cost of education at Harvard University has been repeatedly discussed 
in the public prints within the past few years, and is in many families a mat- 
ter of serious concern. Much of the common talk upon the subject is founded 
upon loose estimates, or upon mere guesses or boasts. Trustworthy data for 
accurate statements have recently been gathered from careful inquiries of 
parents, guardians, and reliable students. The smallest annual expenditure 
reported (including every item of cost) was $471. A few students kept their 
expenditure within $500; and this can be done without injury to health, and 
without suffering of any sort. The great majority of students — whose par- 
ents are neither rich nor poor — spent from $650 to $850 a year; this is a 
liberal allowance. The upper limit of expenditure is of course indeterminable. 

The necessary items of annual expenditure upon four different scales, with 
all desirable minuteness of specification, can be seen in the following table. 
The expenses of the long vacation are not included. 





Least. 


Economical. 


Moderate. 


Ample. 


Tuition 


$150 

20 

8 

70 
30 
10 
140* 
11 
15 
15 

30 


$150 
25 
10 
120 
30 
15 

175t 
15 
20 
15 

40 


$150 

30 

15 

150 

100 

25 

1751 
30 
40 
30 

35 

50 


$150 


Books .... .... 


35 


Stationery 

Clothing 

Room 

Furniture (annual average) . . 

Board 

Fuel and light 

Washing 


26 
300 
175 

50 
304J 

45 

50 


Car fares . 


50 


Societies and subscription to sports 

(annual average) " 

Servant 


50 
30 


Sundries 


100 






Total ........ 


$499 


$615 


S830 


$1,365 



II 



Divinity Club. 



t Memorial Hall. 



X Private club. 




MASSACHUSETTS HALL (I). 




HARVARD HALL (2). 



A WALK THROUGH HARVARD. 



To take a walk through the grounds of Harvard University, there is, prob- 
ably, no better place to enter than at the main gate on the west side of the 
college '* yard, " as the grounds, lying between Broadway and Cambridge 
street on the north, Quincy street on the east, Harvard street on the south, 
and North Avenue on the west, are familiarly called. The path from this 
gate leads into the Quadrangle. On the right of this path, as you enter from 
the gate, stands — 

1. Massachusetts Hall, the oldest of the college buildings, bearing the 
name of the province that founded the college and built this hall. In 1718, 
wdiile Mr. Leverett was president, the General Court ordered a three-story 
brick building, 100 by 50 feet, to be erected at the expense of the province as 
a dormitory for students. For 150 years this building was occupied for that 
purpose. After the battle of Lexington the students were compelled to 
vacate the premises in order that the American soldiers might be accom- 
modated, but in 1776 the soldiers were withdrawn and the students again 
took possession of it. 

During Dr. Kirkland's administration the building was thoroughly repaired 
and renovated, and a portion of the lower floor assigned to society and recita- 
tion uses. Here the Institute met in debate, and the Natural History Society 
held its meetings and kept its collections. In 1870 Massachusetts Hall under- 
went an alteration in its interior arrangements : the two upper floors were 
changed into one large room, which is now used for examinations, while the 
two lower floors were converted into a single story, which, in addition to its 
use for examinations, is used for recitations and as the Harvard reading room. 
In this building the classes meet, as they have done for several years, to choose 
their officers and transact other class business. On the west end, near the 
roof, is a wooden " patch : " many wonder what it is, not knowing that it is the 
shield that for many years held the dial of a clock long since "run out." 

On the left of the road, parallel and opposite to Massachusetts Hall, is — 




o 
u 



a < 









AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 21 

2. Harvard Hall, 1765, wliich is the second structure of that name. The 
original building was the first erected for the college. Donations from friends 
supplied the means for erecting the first building, which, together with 5,000 
books and the cabinet of apparatus, was destroyed by fire in 1764. As the 
General Court was holding its sessions in this hall at that time, the province 
provided for the erection of the building now standing, which was planned 
by Governor Bernard, who, it is said, could repeat the whole of Shakspere. 
Built of brick, two stories high, the hall rests upon a foundation of Braintree 
stone, above which is a layer of dressed red sandstone, with a belt of the same 
material between the stories. During the Revolution the American army was 
stationed here, and, among the items for damages sustained, a bill was rendered 
for 1,000 pounds of lead, cut from the roofs and carried away, probably to be 
molded into bullets. In 1789 Washington was received here. 

The buttery, an obsolete institution, was in Harvard Hall. "As the com- 
mons rendered the college independent of private boarding-houses, so the but- 
tery removed all just occasion for resorting to the different marts of luxury, 
intemperance, and ruin. This was a kind of supplement to the commons, and 
offered for sale to the students, at a moderate advance on the cost, wines, 
liquors, groceries, stationery, and, in general, such articles as it was proper 
and necessary for them to have occasionally, and which for the most part were 
not included in the commons' fare." 

At various times this building has contained the chapel, library, commons, 
philosophical apparatus, and mineralogical cabinet, and around its walls hung 
the portraits belonging to the college. From 1842 to 1871 Commencement din- 
ner was served here. The building had a clock which kept time for the stu- 
dents, but that was removed when the faculty arranged to have control of the 
clock on the church opposite. The bell in the belfry has been used for many 
years to notify students of their multifarious engagements. The first bell 
was brought from an Italian convent. At present the building is made use of 
principally for recitations, readings, and lectures, and contains a large amount 
of valuable philosophical apparatus. 

On the right, next beyond Massachusetts Hall (1), the building which 
forms part of the western boundary of the quadrangle is — 

3. Matthews Hall, the gift of Nathan Matthews of Boston. This hall, 
erected in 1872 in the Gothic style of architecture, at a cost of nearly $120,- 
000, is one of the most ornamental and conveniently arranged of the college 



22 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

dormitories. A solid brick wall divides it into two separate parts, each of 
which has entrances on both east and west fronts. There are sixty suites of 
rooms, nearly all double, including study, two bedrooms, and closets; these 
suites are naturally ranked among the most desirable. 

The site of Matthews Hall is that of a brick building erected in 1666 for the 
accommodation of Indian students by the ' ' Society for Propagating the Gos- 
pel ; • ' subsequently the old building was turned over to the college printing- 
press, and there it is probable that the second edition of the Indian Bible 
was printed. 

To the southwest of the quadrangle, between Matthews Hall (3) and the 
street corner, stands — 

4. Dane Hall, commonly known as the Law School, a two- story brick build- 
ing, which was erected in 1832 and enlarged in 1845. On the lower floor of 
the addition is the law library, containing 16,000 volumes of valuable law 
books, and on the upper floor is the lecture room. The upper of these rooms 
is ornamented with paintings and busts of men distinguished for legal ability, 
who have been connected with the law school and the state. 

The first Dane Hall, which was substantially the front part of the present 
building, was built at a cost of $7,000, advanced to the college by Nathan 
Dane (class of 1778) of Beverly, who distinguished himself as a jurist and 
statesman. While in Congress he framed the celebrated '^ Ordinance of 1787," 
by which slavery was excluded from all territory northwest of the Ohio 
River. 

Previously to 1832 the law school (which was not established until 1817, 
although a legacy had been left for this purpose by Isaac Royall in 1779) 
was in a small building opposite the present one, on the site of College House 
(39). The law school of Harvard was the first established in this country 
in connection with a collegiate course of instruction. In 1871 the whole build- 
ing was moved about seventy feet southward to make room for Matthews 
Hall (3), and now '' the south foundation wall of Dane is the same as the 
north wall of, the old meeting-house, so that Law and Divinity rest here on a 
common base." 

On the street line the first building to the left is the — 

5. Old President's House, often called the Wadsworth House, as its first 
occupant was President Wadsworth, in 1726. It is an old-fashioned wooden 
structure, situated on the north side of Harvard Street. 




MATTHEWS HALL (3) 




DANE HALL (4). 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 23 

Down to the year 1849 it was the residence of the successive presidents of 
the college, being, next to Massachusetts Hall (1), the oldest of the college 
buildings ; it is said to have received within its walls more noted persons 
than any other house in Cambridge. Many historical incidents are connected 
with it. Both Washington and Lee were quartered here for a short time 
in 1775. At present the main building is occupied by college officers and 
students. 

The brick annex was formerly across the path and connected with the house 
by a portico. Then the second floor was the president's study, and the first 
floor was occupied by the president's freshman, an office long since abolished. 
This freshman was paid $40 a year and furnished with a room for his services 
as errand boy to the president. 

Of the brick annex, the first floor contains the bursar's office, and the 
second floor the college printing rooms, where the minor printing is done. 

In the bursar's office is an antiquated clock that formerly stood in Massa- 
chusetts Hall, and regulated the time of the regent's freshman. 

Across the south end of the quadrangle is — 

6. Grays Hall, a five-story brick building with Mansard roof and granite 
trimmings. It was erected by the corporation, and its name commemorates 
the munificence of three liberal benefactors of the college, namely, Francis 
Calley Gray (class of 1809), who gave the *' Gray collection of engravings," 
now justly celebrated; John Chipman Gray (class of 1811), who for a series 
of years furnished funds for valuable prizes in the mathematical department ; . 
and William Gray (class of 1829), who, in addition to other gifts, gave 
S25,000, within a period of five years, for the purchase of books. The build- 
ing is divided by two brick walls into three sections, and contains fifty-two 
suites of single rooms, all being provided with ventilating flues and open fire- 
places. On the front are three stone tablets, one of which represents the seal 
of the college, another the date of the founding of the college (1636), and 
the third the date of the completion of the building (1863). On the first floor 
are the rooms of the Harvard Art Club and St. Paul's Society. 

A little outside of the quadrangle, to the southeast of Grays, stands — 

7. Boylston Hall, the chemical laboratory, which was erected in 1857 at a 
cost of $50,000, being then only two stories high. In 1871 a Mansard roof 
was added at an additional cost of $20,000. Of the first sum, $23,000 were 
derived from an accumulative fund given at different times for that purpose 



24 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

by Ward Nicholas Boylston of Boston. The hall is built of Rockport granite 
and, by way of security against fire, all the partition walls are made of brick 
On the first floor there is a lecture room , chemical recitation room, and labo 
ratories for quantitative analysis and organic chemistry ; on the second floor \ 
cabinet of chemical apparatus, a chemical lecture room, and the museum o 
mineralogy; and on the third floor a laboratory for qualitative analysis, prep 
aration rooms, and a botanical laboratory. In the Mansard roof there is j 
room for org^ic analysis and a photographic laboratory. All the laboratoriei 
and cabinets are replete with the necessary apparatus for the study of botli 
chemistry and mineralogy. The collection of minerals, of which a consider 
able portion was purchased at Vienna and presented to the college by Theo 
dore Lyman (class of 1810), occupies a large portion of the second and thirc 
stories. The cabinet of Von Liebner, of Innsbruck, Tyrol, is also incorpor- 
ated with this collection. A lithological collection will soon be displayed 
Since the removal of the Peabody Museum to its own building (24) in 1877, 
several alterations in Boylston Hall have been planned, which are now in pro 
cess of execution. When these chancres are finished the mineral collectioi 
will be one of the handsomest of the University's museums. 

To the northeast of Boylston Hall (7), in the college yard, but outside o; 
the quadrangle, is — 

8. Gore Hall, the college library, a structure of Quincy granite, erected ii 
1841, out of proceeds amounting to $70,000 from a residuary legacy made bj 
Christopher Gore (class of 1776), one of the greatest benefactors of the col 
lege. The building is in the Gothic style of architecture of the fourteenti 
century, and was originally constructed in the form of a Latin cross; the lengtl 
of the main body being 140 feet, and that of the transepts 811 feet. It frontj 
both north and south, with an octagonal tower, originally 83 feet high, at each^ 
corner of the main body of the building. The entrance is on the south side 
of the eastern extension. The gilt cross above this entrance is a trophy of the 
siege of Louisbourg in 1745, when it was brought away by the Massachusetts 
troops. At the time of the removal of the library to Gore Hall it consisted of 
but 41, 000 volumes, and then a building of its dimensions was thought to be large 
enough to hold all the books that would accumulate during the present cent- 
ury; but subsequent experience has shown the necessity of more room, to pro- 
vide which an extension of the east transept was begun in 1876 and completed 
in 1877, at a cost of $90,000. This new compartment, designed expressly as 
/I repository for books, differs materially in construction from the original 




OLD PRESIDENT'S HOUSE (5). 




GRAYS HALL (6). 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 25 

hall, and, with the exception of the shelves, is entirely of stone, brick and iron. 
The roof consists of concrete tiles, two feet square and three inches thick, 
placed upon iron rafters and covered with slates. 

The new Building is considered fire-proof, and heavy brick walls with iron- 
covered doors separate the new and old halls. The interior is divided into six 
floors, which, together with the staircases, are made of perforated cast iron. 
Each floor is subdivided into fourteen sections, with adjustable shelves, the 
topmost of which can be reached from the floor. On the south side of the 
second floor is the librarian's office, and adjoining are several rooms used by 
the assistants. Two book elevators are at diagonally opposite corners. In a 
part of the delivery room is a gallery in which books of reference will be kept; 
over this room is a hall in which large volumes of plates are displayed ; and 
under the same room is the boiler, inclosed in a vault, that furnishes the 
steam heat for the building. The old hall is to be remodeled, and when all 
the changes are effected, the building will have a capacity of over 500,000 
volumes. 

As soon as the books are moved into this new compartment, the old sys- 
tem of marking and delivering will be discontinued, and each volume will be 
marked with five numbers, describing (1) the face, (2) the floor, (3) the sec- 
tion, (4) the shelf, and (5) the number of the book on the shelf. 

The privilege of consulting the books of the library is granted to every one, 
whether connected with the college or not. This feature has made the library 
the resort of students from various parts of the country, and the receptacle of 
many valuable collections of books and antiquities. Though called the Col- 
lege Library, it is in effect the library of the university. The president, in 
a recent report, points out what an important position the library is expected 
in the future to take in that group of organizations which now constitutes 
the university. While the library may supply to every department a source 
from which instruction may be drawn, it must of itself, in any comprehensive 
system of training, become the centre of strong influences. The advanced 
students in science and arts, who now pursue their studies with little concert 
of action, will in all probability ultimately be brought together under the 
charge of a separate faculty ; of the instruction given by such a faculty the 
library must be the principal centre. 

As a means to this end, it is intended to make the catalogue work of the 
library, manuscript and printed, actively instructive, so that it may allure 



26 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

students to investigation. The bulletin published quarterly now contains con- 
densed treatises concerning the sources of information on the topics alluded 
to, and critical notices of books ; the special aid of the professors in the 
several departments is enlisted in this work. The instructors are expected to 
make it the vehicle of whatever advice on books they would impart, whenever 
the permanence of print might be an advantage. It is intended also that the 
bulletin shall be the means of gradually getting into print special bibliogra- 
phies of those departments of the library which are peculiarly strong and in- 
teresting, as, for instance, that of ballad literature, of which the collection in 
the library is supposed to be the best and most extensive in existence. 

In 1841, when John Langdon Sibley (class of 1825) entered upon his thirty- 
six consecutive years of service, the annual income of the library was about 
$250 ; now it amounts to $15,000, and is likely to increase largely. 

At the beginning of the year 1878 the library contained 170,000 volumes, and 
is the third largest collection of books in America ; the Boston Public Library 
with its eight branches standing first, and the Library of Congress second. 
The present collection is but little over one hundred years old, a fire having 
destroyed the earlier library in 1 764. Its growth was slow, and unassisted by 
funds to any noteworthy extent, until about twenty years ago, when the Hon. 
William Gray (class of 1829)^began an annual gift of $5,000, and continued 
it for five years. This was spent as it accrued, but the funded resources are 
now eighteen in number, besides two not yet available. The most considerable 
is a bequest of Charles Minot, now amounting to $60,000; the next that of the 
late Hon. Charles Sumner, $34,000, and the next was left by the late Presi- 
dent Walker, $15,000. Several considerable private libraries have also been 
received, — like that of Henry Ware Wales, rich in Italian classics and Ori- 
entalia; of Clarke Gay ton Pickman; of Charles Sumner, rich in books of 
curious history and associations, and of President Walker. The hall is open 
on every week day, except legal holidays, from nine A. M. to five p. m., but 
closes at two p. m. during a reeess or vacation. 

Opposite, and parallel to the west side of Gore Hall (8), is — 

9. Weld Hall, one of the most attractive dormitories, which was built, 
in 1872, by William F. Weld, in memory of his brother, Stephen Minot Weld 
(class of 1824). The brdlding is of brick, with belts of Hght sandstone, in the 
Elizabethan style of architecture, five stories high, and contains fifty-four 
suites of elegant rooms. The front is on the west side, facing Matthews 




BOYLSTON HALL (7). 




GORE HALL (8). 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 2J 

Hall (3), and the main entrance is under two wide archways that open on a 
large porch paved with marble tiles. 

Passing around the northern end of Weld (9), into the quadrangle path, we 
have on the right — 

10. University Hall, the first stone building that was erected in the col- 
lege yard. It occupies the central position of the east side of the quadrangle, 
and was built in 1815 by the corporation, at a cost of $65,000, ot which sum 
about $53,000 were derived from a grant by the State. 

This is, and has been, since its completion, the centre of the college. At 
first it contained the chapel, commons, and recitation rooms. In the cen- 
tral portion of the building, in the present second and third stories, was the 
chapel, where the exhibitions were held. Until 1841 Commencement dinners 
were served here. Distinguished visitors were formally entertained in this 
building, and on the steps of the southern entrance many noted visitors have 
been received ; among whom were Presidents Monroe (1817) and Jackson 
(1833), Major-general Worth, with the West Point Cadets (1821), and 
Lafayette (1824). Annually the state governor, escorted by a troop of horse, 
preceded by trumpeters, and accompanied by his staff, was welcomed here. 

Both interior and exterior have been greatly modified since its erection. A 
long portico that adorned the front was removed ; the chapel was altered 
(1833), disused for public worship (1858), and finally divided into two floors 
(1867), which were subdivided into recitation and lecture rooms ; the commons 
discontinued (1842), and the lower floor changed (1849) into recitation rooms. 
President Sparks first made use of the building for the office of the pres- 
ident, occupying a part of the south end of the second floor, and, since that 
time, the office of the successive presidents has remained here. The office 
of the present executive is the southeast room, that of the dean the southwest 
room, while adjoining and communicating with them are the offices of the sec- 
retary and registrar. In these rooms the faculty of the college proper assem- 
ble weekly to attend to all business relating to discipline and instruction in 
the college. The academic council, and the parietal committee also meet here. 
In the upper story is an examination room, while the other parts of the build- 
ing are used for recitations. In the hall- ways and in front of University Hall 
are placed the bulletin boards, which, in accordance with the regulations, must 
be closely scanned by the students. Part of the basement is used as recitation 



28 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



Among the relics in the president's office is the antique chair shown on 

this page, which from " time be- 
yond the memory of man " has 
been used by the president on 
Commencement Day when con- 
ferring degrees; two oil paint- 
ings of the college yard and 
buildings in 1821; an old-fash- 
ioned clock, given by Samuel 
Willard, who had charge of the 
college clocks for fifty years ; 
a sideboard, cut with the ini- 
tials " J. E., 1681," that once 
belonged to the Apostle John 
Eliot ; and an antiquated desk, 
the history of which extends 
so far back that it has been 
lost to the present generation. 
It was in late years used by 
Governor Washburn. 

On the north of University 
Hall (10), and nearly on a line 
with it, is — 

1 The round knobs on the chair were turned by President Holyoke and attached to it by his own 
hands. The picture of Holyoke in Memorial Hall represents him sitting in this old chair. 

College Words and Customs tells the following: "Before the erection of Gore Hall (8)) the 
books of the college were kept ia Harvard Hall. In the same building, also, was the philosophy 
chamber, where the chair usually stood for the inspection of the curious. Over this domain, from 
the year 1793 to 1800, presided Samuel Shapleigh, the librarian. He was a dapper little bachelor, 
very active and remarkably attentive to the ladies who visited the library, especially the younger 
portion of them. When ushered into the room where stood the old chair, he would watch them 
with eager eyes ; and as soon as one, prompted by a desire of being able to say, ' I have sat in the 
president's chair,' took this seat, rubbing his hands together, he would exclaim, in great glee, ' A 
forfeit 1 a forfeit ! ' and demand from the fair occupant a kiss, a fee which, whether refused or not, 
he seldom failed to obtain.- 
Speaking of Commencement Day exercises, William Biglow^, in 1811, says : — 
" Now young gallants allure their favorite fair 
To take a seat in presidential chair ; 
Then seize the long-accustomed fee, the bliss 
Of the half -ravished J half free-granted kiss." 




Old President's Chair.i 




WELD HALL (9j. 




UNIVERSITY HALL (10) 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 2g 

11. Thayer Hall, erected, in 1870, by Nathaniel Thayer of Boston, at a 
cost of Si 00, 000, in memory of his father, Rev. Nathaniel Thayer, D. D. 
(class of 1789), and of his brother, John Eliot Thayer. This hall, built of 
brick, four and five stories high, is the longest of any in the yard, and is 
divided into three distinct parts by two solid walls. The central division, 
which rises one story above the other two, is entered from the side facing 
the quadrangle, and the other portions are entered at the ends of the build- 
ing. There are sixty-eight suites of rooms, with accommodations for 116 
students. 

Directly behind Thayer Hall (11), in the college yard, is — 

12. Appleton Chapel, named in honor of Samuel Appleton, from whose 

estate the college received $50,000 for the erection of a chapel. It is built 

of a light sandstone brought from Nova Scotia, and was dedicated October 17, 

1858. Durino^ President Eliot's administration the buildino^ has been con- 
es o 

siderably improved and a gallery put in, the expenses of which were de- 
frayed by the heirs of Nathan Appleton of Boston. The windows are of 
richly stained glass, and bear the motto " Christo et Ecclesise " above, and 
'' Veritas " below. Tlie whole interior is beautiful and pleasing. By means 
of a signal wire the officiating minister is informed from the chapel door 
when the services should begin. At fifteen minutes before eight o'clock each 
week day morning all the students of the college proper assemble here for 
devotional exercises. On Sunday the usual church service, conducted by 
Rev. A. P. Peabody, D. D. (class of 1826), is held by a church and congre- 
gation that was formed in 1814. Here, also, wedding and funeral ceremonies 
are solemnized. Among the obsequies performed here have been those of Gen- 
eral C. R. Lowell (class of 1854), President C. C. Felton (class of 1827), 
Professor Louis Agassiz, Professor Jeffries Wyman (class of 1833), and Gov- 
ernor Emory Washburn. 

The building which forms the north end of the quadrangle is — 

13. Holworthy Hall, and bears the name of Sir Matthew Hoi worthy, a 
merchant of Hackney, in Middlesex, England, who left to the college, at his 
death in 1678, the sum of £1,000, the largest bequest that had been made to 
the college. In 1812 Holworthy Hall was built from the money received from 
this bequest and a lottery. It is a plain four-story brick structure, and would 
retain its original appearance had not the upper story been raised a little. 
There are three distinct parts, separated by brick walls, and containing twenty- 



30 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

four suites of double rooms, each suite extending from the front to the rear 
of the building. It was the latest built of the four oldest dormitories in the 
yard, and for fifty years was chiefly reserved for members of the senior class. 
The rooms will always be very desirable, for in addition to the good reputa- 
tion the building has always maintained, they have a southern exposure and a 
charming prospect over the quadrangle. The Prince of Wales and Duke 
Alexis were shown rooms of this building as specimens of students' quarters. 
On the steps of the centre hallway the Xavy Club used to form its processions 
and hold its levees. The slate first used on the roof of this hall was about an 
inch thick, and was, probably, the first quarried in this country ; the War of 
1812 preventing the importation of the slate that was needed. 

The next building, which forms at a right angle with Holworthy Hall (13) 
the northwestern corner of the quadrangle, is — 

14. Stoughton Hall. The first hall of this name, erected by William 
Stoughton (class of 1650), in 1700, at a cost of £1,000 Massachusetts cur- 
rency, was a small brick building containing sixteen rooms, and stood at a 
right angle with Harvard Hall (2) at its southeastern extremity. In 1775 the 
Provincial Congress took possession of the building, and then 240 revolution- 
ary soldiers were quartered there, while the " New England Chronicle and 
Essex Gazette '' was printed in one of the rooms. The present Stoughton 
Hall is a four-story brick building, in the plain but substantial style char- 
acteristic of our New England fathers, and was completed in 1805 at a cost 
of nearly S24,000, of which sum S18,600 was derived from a lottery, and the 
remainder from the general college fund. The interior has been somewhat 
altered, and now contains thirty- two rooms. On the closet door panels of 
room 25 there are four oil paintings, comprising an owl, a frog, a gull, and a 
turtle, the work of W. S. Haseltine (class of 1854), while a student. About 
1815 there was, in room 3, the reading room of the college, and in this build- 
ing the annual auctions of second-hand books were held by the students, the 
proceeds going to the poor scholars. 

For about twenty-five years the Hasty Pudding Club had rooms in the 
upper story of the north division of this building. 

Among the occupants of Stoughton who have since distinguished themselves 
might be mentioned, Alexander H. Everett, Minister to Spain (room 25); 
Judge Preble of Maine, Minister to the Hague (room 15) ; Edward Everett 
(room 23); Josiah Quincy (room 3); the twin brothers Peabody (room 14): 




THAYER HALL (II). 




APPLETON CHAPEL (12). 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 



31 



Caleb Gushing (room 26) ; Horatio Greenough (room 2) ; C. C. Felton (room 
31); G. S. Hillard (room 16); Charles Sumner (room 12); G. T. Bigelow 
(room 27) ; Oliver Wendell Holmes (room 31) ; C. T. Brooks (room 12); E. 
R..Hoar (room 25); Edward E. Hale (room 22). 

Southwest of the southern extremity of Stoughton Hall (14) is — 

15. Holden Chapel, one of the oldest of the college buildings. In 1741 
the wife and daughters of Samuel Holden — a member of parliament, governor 
.of the Bank of England, and regarded as the head of the English Dissenters — 
bestowed upon the col- 
lege £400 to supply a 
needed chapel. This was 
completed in 1744, and 
named after the donors. 

With the exception of 
the removal of a porch 
that faced the Common, 
and the cutting of a 
door in what was then 
the rear, the chapel pre- 
serves its original out- 
ward appearance. 

After twenty- five years' 
occupancy for chapel 
purposes it was trans- 
ferred to the medical department, to be used conjointly by it, the professor of 
chemistry, and the college carpenter. 

About 1825 the present second story was inserted, and each of the two 
floors divided into two apartments. On the lower floor were the chemical 
laboratory and lecture room, and in the upper floor an anatomical museum 
and lecture room that was occasionally used by Dr. Warren in his lectures on 
anatomy. Since 1858 the partitions of each floor have been removed; and 
the upper floor was fitted up in 1870 for the Everett Athenseum. Afterwards, 
the society gave up its room, and now the upper floor is used by the profes- 
sors of fine arts and elocution, and the lower by the professor of French, and 
at times for examinations. 

The building south of Stoughton (14), and on a line with it, is — 




Holden Chapel (15). 



32 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

16. HoUis Hall. This four-story bri(,*k dormitory, containing thirty-two 
rooms, is the model on which Stoughton Hall was built, and commemorates the 
name of an English family that for a period of more than eighty years bestowed 
generous benefactions upon the college. The first of the family that became 
a benefactor of the college was Thomas Hollis, a merchant of London. The 
building was erected in 1763, with funds, amounting to £3,000, appropri- 
ated by the General Court of Massachusetts. In 1768 it was struck by light- 
ning, and in 1775, when the Provincial Congress took possession of the college 
buildings, the students were compelled to vacate their rooms in Hollis.^ At an 
early period room 8 was occupied by a genial fellow who is said to have kept 
his table constantly spread with eatables and drinkables, to ^yhich his friends 
were heartily welcome at all times. This old building has been the home of nu- 
merous college societies, and among them were the Harvard Washington Corps; 
the "Med. Fac." (room 13), one of the most ingeniously organized plpts for 
fun that has been conceived of; and the '* Enginse Societas." The cause of 
the dissolution of the latter was the drenching of room 7, occupied by a pro- 
fessor, just after the engine had returned from service at a fire. In 1792 
the stately elm known as "rebellion tree ^' was planted in the quadrangle 
in front of the south entrance of Hollis. This tree derives its name from the 
fact that in the earlier days turbulent and unruly collegians Avere wont to 
assemble around it to give vent to their indignation at some seemingly un- 
just regulation. 

Ilollis, as well as its neighbors, has had catalogued in its rooms many dis- 
tinguished men, and some of these were: Edward Everett (rooms 20 and 24); 
W. H. Prescott (rooms 6 and 11); IK^alph Waldo Emerson (rooms 5, 15, and 
20); Charles Francis Adams (room 15); Charles Sumner (room 17); Wen- 
dell Phillips (rooms 18, 16, and 11); H. D. Thoreau (rooms 20, 32, 31, and 
23); B. R. Curtis (room 22). 

Passing out of the gate at which the college yard was entered, and turning 
to the north, we have the Common, wdth the flag-staff, on the left, and on the 
right — 

17. Class Day Tree, that stretches out its mighty limbs in the area inclosed 
by Holden Chapel, Harvard and Hollis halls. Ever since 1760 there are 
records of class day exercises, with occasional omissions. From its inception 
Class Day has been a day of festivity, and recollections of it, no doubt, cling 
to the participators throughout their lifetime. The usual exercises of the 




HOLWORTHY HALL (13). 




HARVARD ART CLUB.— ROOM IN GRAY'S HALL. 



^. 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS, ^ 33 

present time, considerably varied from those of former years, are familiar to 
all. We intend merely to call attention to the tree, sometimes called Liberty 
Tree, being the name transferred from a tree that once stood south of Har- 
vard Hall, around which the students clustered in 1760 to oppose the tutors, 
who had put restrictions upon absences from prayers and recitations. From 
1815 the closing exercises of Class Day have been held aroand this tree. 
Lowell writes as follows : '' Long before ^y^ o'clock every inch of vantage 
ground whence even a glimpse at this frenzy of muscular sentiment may be 
hoped for has been taken up. The trees are garlanded with wriggling boys, 
who here apply the skill won by long practice in neighboring orchards and 
gardens, while every post becomes the pedestal of an unsteady group. In the 
street, a huddled drove of carriages bristle with more luxurious gazers. The 
senior class are distinguished by the various shapes of eccentric ruin dis- 
played in their hats, as if the wildest nightmares of the maddest of hatters 
had suddenly taken form and substance. First, the seniors whirl hand in 
hand about the tree with the energy of excitement gathered through the 
day ; class after class is taken in, till all college is swaying in the unwieldy 
ring, which at last breaks to pieces of its own weight. Then comes the 
frantic leaping and struggling for a bit of the wreath of flowers that cir- 
cles the tree at a fairly difficult height. Here trained muscle tells ; but some- 
times mere agility and lightness, which know how to climb on others' shoul- 
ders, win the richest trophy. This contest is perhaps the most striking single 
analogy between the life of college and that of the larger world which is to 
follow it. Each secures his memorial leaf or blossom, many to forget ere 
long its special significance ; some, of less changeful temper or less prosperous 
lives, to treasure it as a link that binds them inseparably with youth and 
happy days." 

At the head of the street stands the — 

18. Holmes House, an old ganibrel-roofed house, situated between Kirk- 
land Street and North Avenue. It is claimed that more than 150 years have 
rolled by since the building was placed upon its foundation, and that within 
its walls many schemes for revolutionary battles were formed. The first known 
proprietor of the house was Jabez Fox, a tailor of Boston, from whom it 
passed to Jonathan Hastings, a farmer. This Hastings is said to have orig- 
inated the word ^^ Yankee," which he constantly used to express excellence. 
A second Jonathan Hastings (class of 1730), for a long time college steward, 
3 



34 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



occupied the house when it gained its paramount importance. In 1775 the 
committee of safety were quartered here, where they planned the organiza- 
tion of an army that had been created by the Provincial Congress. In this 
house, it is asserted, Benedict Arnold, as captain, reported with a company 
from Connecticut, and proposed to make the attempt on Ticonderoga. Here, 
also, Arnold was commissioned colonel by the committee of safety, and or- 
dered to seize the strongholds on the lakes. General Artemas Ward is enu- 
merated among the many noted occupants. The honor of having famished 

Washington with temporary 
head-quarters is also claimed 
for it, and Drake says, "it 
was, no doubt, in this house j 
that Washington penned his \ 
first official dispatches." Aft- 
er the war came Eliphalet 
Pearson, professor of Hebrew 
and Oriental languages. 
Judge Oliver Wendell bought 
the estate, and from him it 
passed to his son-in-law, the 
Rev. Abiel Holmes, author of 
"American Annals" and 
father of Oliver Wendell 
Holmes. From this family 
comes the name by which the place is now known. In this house the lines 
to " Old Ironsides " were written. The property now belongs to the college, 
and the house is the residence of William Everett, a son of Edward Everett, 
and until recently a professor in the college. 

West of Holmes House (18), between Kirkland Street and North Avenue; 
stands — 

19. Thayer Commons Hall. In 1864 Nathaniel Thayer gave SI, 000 to 
aid in providing a place where students could obtain a sufficient quantity of 
wholesome and nutritious food at cost. In the following year a part of an 
old railroad station-house, that had been bought by the college, was converted 
into a kitchen and dining room, in charge of the summum honum, i. e., " Queen 
Goody," as the chief of the bedmakers is called by students. The front room 




Holmes House (18). 




STOUGHTON HALL (14). 




MOLLIS HALL (16). 



r 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 



35 



of the building accommodated fifty persons, and was suitably furnished by 
means of the money given by Mr. Thayer. In 1866 the rear room was 
added, which afforded accommodations for the same number as the front 
room. Then Mr. Thayer, on being informed of the crowded state of the 
commons, determined that a larger dining room should be built, and there- 
upon raised $7,000 by subscriptions, of which sum he personally subscribed 
S5,000. This addition was completed in 1867, and at that time the kitchen 
was enlarged, the cellar arrangements increased, and new apparatus and ap- 
purtenances purchased. A committee of the college faculty supervised the 
commons, but the immediate control was left to a club formed by the stu- 




Thayer Commons Ha 



dents, who chose a steward and executive officers. In 1874 the Thayer Club, 
as it was called, did not have sufficient room to accommodate all applicants, 
and consequently a new plan was suggested by which the corporation was to 
select the steward for the commons, and provide room for it in the spacious 
dining hall of Memorial Hall. This plan met with general approbation, and 
shortly afterwards went into effect. It was thus that, from the club of fifty 
students having commons in the " railroad station," the Memorial Hall Dining 
Association has resulted, which embraces a membership of about 600 persons. 
At present the house is used as a dwelling. 
East of the Holmes estate, on the north side of Kirkland Street, is the — 



z^ 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



i 



20. Lawrence Scientific School, a three-story and basement brick build- 
ing, with a two-story and basement brick L, erected in 1848, at a cost of 
$25,000, which was one half the first donation of Abbott Lawrence of Bos- 
ton. It is but the east wing of the projected building. On the first floor is a 
thoroughly equipped general physical laboratory, and in the L, a special one for 
light and heat, and also a chemical laboratory. The library, model room, and 
recitation rooms of the engineering department occupy the second floor. The 
third floor is devoted to the departments of surveying, mechanical and free- 
hand drawing. The growth of the scientific department of the university 
has been so rapid, and developed from so small a beginning, that, although it 
embraces but a period of thirty years, it would be impracticable in a work of 
this class to trace the various lines of its progress. When first organized it 
was the only school of the kind in this country that was connected with a col- 
legiate course of instruction. On the farther side of Holmes Field (28), and 
fronting on Jarvis Street, is the former — 

21. Zoological Hall, now Society Hall. This insignificant-looking 

structure, originally located 
just west of the Lawrence 
Scientific School (20), shows 
how rapidly the scientific 
department has developed, 
for, when erected in 1849, 
it sufficed to hold on the 
second floor Agassiz's val- 
uable collections, and to ac- 
commodate on the first floor 
the engineering branch, with 
all its recitation, lecture, 
and drawing rooms, besides 
containing all the apparatus 
(consisting solely of a set of 
surveyor's instruments). Afterwards the engineering department was re- 
moved, and for ten years this building was the nucleus for the material that 
comprises the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Later it was moved to 
Divinity Avenue and changed into a dormitory for students connected with 
the museum. In 18 7G the building was removed to its present location and 




Society Hall (21). 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 37 

the interior adapted to tlie uses of societies. It is now occupied by the Hasty 
Pudding Society, the Institute of 1770, the Glee Club, and the Pierian So- 
dality. 

Continuing eastward on Kirkland Street, we come to the north side of — 

22. Memorial Hall, which includes the Dining Hall, the Memorial 
Transept, and the Sanders Theatre. 

For this most magnificent and imposing edifice the university is indebted 
to the munificence of her sons. At the close of the late civil war there was 
a feeling among the graduates that a memorial should be erected to those 
students and graduates of the college who had served in the army or navy in 
defense of the Union and Constitution ; and when, on Commencement Day 
in 1865, the project was laid before the association of the alumni, it was sub- 
mitted to a committee of fifty, with full power to act on the subject. 

This committee, after the designs of several distinguished architects had 
been considered, voted that a ''Memorial Hall" be erected, and Messrs. 
Ware and Van Brunt be employed as architects. The plan proposed by them 
was approved as " a suitable monument in commemoration of the sons of 
Harvard who periled and laid down their lives to preserve us as a nation, a 
hall for the meetings of the alumni and their festal entertainments, and a 
theatre or auditorium for the celebration of the literary festivals of the college." 

In short, the necessary sub-committees were formed, and an active canvass 
for subscriptions was begun. On the 6th of October, 1870 the corner-stone 
was laid with befitting ceremonies, and at Commencement in 1874 the Dining 
Hall and Memorial Transept were ready for occupancy, but the Theatre was 
not completed until the year 1876. The cost of the whole building was about 
$500,000. The extreme dimensions of the building are 310 feet in length, and 
115 feet in width, with the longer axis running east and west. The exterior is 
built of brick with ornamental trimmings of Nova Scotia buff sandstone, and 
one of its main features is the memorial tower, 200 feet high and about 35 feet 
square, which rises over the centre of the transept. The building is composed 
of three grand divisions, the central division or transept being the Memorial 
Hall proper, which forms a monumental vestibule to the other two divisions, — 
that extending westward, the nave or dining hall; and that on the east being 
the Sanders Theatre, so called as a tribute to the memory of Charles Sanders, 
a generous friend of the college, whose bequest was turned into this channel. 
The transept fronts contain the main entrances to the building, each being a 



38 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



wide arched doorway in a carved stone screen containing niclies, and crowned 
with an open parapet ; over the parapet on each front is a large stone tracery 
window filled with stained glass, while the gables above bear dedicatory in- 
scriptions. As one enters 
by either doorway, he finds 
himself in Memorial Hall 
proper, which is 112 feet 
long and 30 feet wide. The 
floor on which he treads is. 
a marble pavement, while 
above him, at a height of 
58 feet, is a vaulting of 
brown ash. The walls are 
finished to the height of 18 
feet with a carved black wal- 
nut screen in the form of an 
arcade ; the arches, 28 in 
number, contain each a mar- 
ble tablet surmounted by a 
mosaic or inlay of marble; 
on these tablets are inscribed 
the names, classified by col- 
lege departments, of the 
graduates or students of the 
university who fell in the 
late civil war, with the 
date and place of death of 
those who died in battle. On 
the right, at either end, is a 
staircase leading to the thea- 
tre, a building 100 feet in 
Memorial Hall Transept. diameter. It resembles the 

classic theatre in plan, the polygonal side containing grades of seats and galle- 
ries facing a broad recessed stage. The roof is of open timber, 76 feet high 
from the arena to the apex, without columns. The seats accommodate about 
1,500 persons. Upon the exterior of the theatre, just above the windows, are 




AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 39 

strong sculptured heads of representative orators, — Demosthenes, Cicero, St. 
Chrysostom, Bossuet, Chatham, Burke, and Webster. We leave the theatre. 
The dining hall, which bears a general resemblance to the halls of the Eng- 
lish colleges, though surpassing them in size, is entered by a door in the 
centre of the west side of the vestibule. Its interior dimensions are 60 feet 
in width, 164 feet in length, and 80 feet in height to the apex of the roof; and 
at each end is a carved screen and gallery. The walls are faced with red 
and black brick- work, with belts of tiles. A space of 22 feet between the 
floor and side windows is occupied by a wooden wainscoting, against which 
are placed the busts and portraits belonging to the university (descriptive 
cards can be had in the hall). At the west end is a great window, 25 by 30 
feet, filled with stained glass, in which are emblazoned the arms of the col- 
lege, of the State, and of the United States. Over a thousand persons can 
be accommodated at the tables. An elegant case containing the trophies of 
the University Base Ball Club is in the auditor's office on the main floor. 

The large basement is used for the steward's and other offices, kitchen, 
boiler room, and other purposes. The gallery at the east end of the dining 
hall is free to visitors, even at meal times. The hall is open every week day, 
but in vacation only between the hours of 9 and 12 a. m. and 2 and 4 p. m. 

A short distance east of Memorial Hall, on the north side of Kirkland 
Street, is the delightful Divinity Avenue, and passing along the lovely shaded 
walk, we soon reach, on the east side — 

23. Divinity Hall, a plain two-story brick building, with a three-story brick 
wing on each side, built, in 1826, under the auspices of the Society for the 
Promotion of Theological Education in Harvard University. This society 
■had raised a sum of nearly $20,000, by contributions from friends of the school, 
for the purchase of land and the erection of a building. Besides thirty-seven 
chambers for the accommodation of students (each chamber being furnished 
with a small bedroom), the hall contains a chapel, a large lecture room, a 
reading room, and a library of about 17,000 volumes. In 1869 the Divinity 
Boarding Club was established by contributions, amounting to $2,000, towards 
this object, and towards defraying the cost of board for indigent students. 

Candidates for the ministry have sought instruction at the college ever since 
its foundation, but it was not until the year 1817 that a distinct department 
was established. In this noble movement President Kirkland is said to have 
been the guiding power. A noticeable characteristic of the divinity school is 



40 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

that it requires neither professors nor students to subscribe to any creed, anc 
has always aimed to promote Biblical learning and unsectarian Christiai 
doctrine. 

The new building almost opposite is the — 

24. Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology 
founded, in 1866, by George Peabody of London, England, whose total gifl 
was $150,000, of which S60,000 were to be invested as a building fund, not 
to be used until it amoCinted to S100,000. The remaining $90,000 were ap- 
propriated to the formation and care of collections having special reference 
to American archaeology and ethnology, and for the foundation of a professor- 
ship. The trustees of the fund proceeded at once with the duties assigned them, 
secured temporary quarters for the museum in Boylston Hall (7), and obtained 
by gift and purchase several valuable collections. Among them may be men- 
tioned those of Mortillet, Clement, Claus, Rose, and Nicolucci, containing 
many thousand specimens illustrative of the pre-historic times of Switzerland, 
Italy, France, and Northern Europe. Of particular importance are the collec- 
tions from the Swiss lakes and from Denmark, as they afford the means of 
comparison with the corresponding periods in this country. Next was added 
the famous Squier collection of Peruvian crania, and the equally important 
gift of ancient ^Mexican pottery from Caleb Cushing, and many smaller collec- 
tions from persons in New England. 

The late Jeffries Wyman, curator of the museum until 1874, during his 
numerous excursions made very extensive researches in the shell heaps of 
the Atlantic coast, and in many ways added largely to the museum. The 
archaeological and ethnological collections made by the late Professor Agas- 
siz while on the Hassler expedition, as well as those that had accumulated 
at the Zoological Museum, were given to the Peabody Museum, as were also 
the articles of this nature that had been collected by the Boston Society of 
Natural History, the Boston Athenseum, the Massachusetts Historical Society, 
and the Boston Marine Society. A valuable series of ancient vases from 
Etruria was presented by Signor Castellani, and many interesting specimens 
have been received from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and the 
Peabody Academy of Science in Salem. Of the later additions there is the 
extensive collection from Peru presented by Alexander Agassiz, and numerous 
specimens of stone implements found in the glacial drift in New Jersey, given 
by Dr. C. C. Abbott of Trenton. 



I 




LAWRENCE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL (20). 




DIVINITY HALL (23). 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 4 1 

Yerv extensive special explorations have been made in various parts of 
America, under direction of the museum, from which an immense amount of 
valuable material has been derived. In 1876 the building fund reached sev- 
eral thousand dollars more than the $100,000 limited by Mr. Peabody, and it 
was then determined to erect a suitable building. The present structure was 
completed in October, 1877, with the exception of its cases and furniture, at 
a cost that will probably leave intact nearly the whole of the original building 
fund. The part now completed, which is but the front section of the proposed 
building, contains six rooms, 30 by 40 feet inside, four of which are pro- 
vided with galleries. There are also large basement rooms 11 feet high. A 
wide hall divides the building into north and south sides. The interior will 
be elaborately cased to hold the specimens ; and as soon as these are arranged 
the building will be open to the students and the public. When fully ar- 
ranged, the museum will be one of the most interesting features of the univer- 
sity. The Peabody Museum will occupy the southern wing of the projected 
museum building, described hereafter, while the northern wing, which is the 
building about 230 feet north, is occupied by the — 

25. Museum of Comparative Zoology, founded in 1859, and transferred 
to Harvard College in 1876. The collections which Agassiz accumulated in 
the little wooden Zoological Hall (21) formed the nucleus of this institution, 
while the bequest of $50,000, made, in 1858, by Francis C. Gray of Boston, 
established it on a permanent basis. In 1859 the state made a grant of $100,000, 
which was followed by private subscriptions to the amount of $71,125. In 
1865 Nathaniel Thayer provided the funds for an expedition by Agassiz, 
with six assistants, to Brazil, and through the liberaHty of Alexander McLane, 
president of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, the party was made to 
consist of sixteen persons.. 

In 1872 the United States Coast Survey and private subscriptions of over 
$17,000 furnished the means for what is known as the " Hassler Expedition," 
from Boston to San Francisco, by way of the Magellan Straits. The expe- 
dition, which was in charge of Agassiz, resulted in an extensive addition to 
the museum. 

In 1868 the state granted to the museum an additional $75,000. payable in 
three annual instalments, on condition that a like sum should be given by in- 
dividuals. Down to the year 1873 about $500,000 had been secured from vari- 
ous sources, including some quite small contributions. Since that time the 



42 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

principal sum that has been received is that known as the " Agassiz Memorial 
Fund,'- which amounted to $310,6 73, and was generously subscribed to com- 
plete the museum, as the most fitting memorial of the great scientist. The 
collections have been gathered by purchase and donation from all parts of the 
world. 

Of the building — 166 by ^i) feet — now erected, the west half was com- 
pleted in 1859 and the east half in 1871. There are two stories, each 22^ 
feet high, and a basement and attic each 11 feet high. The two stories have 
galleries, some of which are at present floored over, to provide additional space. 

On the first floor, the so-called synoptic room is the only one used for 
exhibitions, and is intended to show, by a few w^ell-selected objects, the whole 
rano-e of the animal kingdom. All the other rooms on this floor, with one 
exception, are for lectures and laboratories. The excepted room is devoted 
to the assistants of the museum in the departments of mammals, birds, and 
mollusks. 

The galleries of this story have been floored over, except in the synoptic 
room, and are used for the library, which contains 12,000 volumes and 5,000 
pamphlets, and for private work rooms, and offices of the curator, keeper, 
and professors of zoology, geology, and palgeontology ; two rooms of this floor 
are used for the collections of entomology and the assistants in charge of them. 

On the second floor is a large centre room, containing a systematic collec- 
tion of mammals. To the east of it are four rooms, in the first of which are 
the collections of radiates : the main floor cases hold the corals, and the mid- 
dle cases fossil crinoids, while in the gallery is the collection of echinoderms 
and sponges. The hydroid and alcyonoid polyps are not yet arranged. The 
room north of this contains the systematic collection of birds on the main 
floor, and, of reptiles and amphibia in the gallery. In the middle of the room 
stands a fine specimen of the extinct Irish elk. The southeast room contains 
the display of mollusks. The northeast room has a collection of fishes on 
the main floor, and of Crustacea in the gallery. The rooms west of the large 
one are to illustrate the fauna of North and South America. On the south 
side is the North American room, having mammals and birds on the main 
floor, and reptiles, fishes, and invertebrates in the gallery. On the north side 
is the South American room, containing the South American fauna on the 
main floor, and the Australian fauna in the gallery. The attic and cellar are 
used for storao-e. 




THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY (25;. 




THE PEABODY MUSEUM (24). 



f-^ 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 



43 




Divinity Avenue. 
j:r2'4 -rr. ■ 



bLock pLAN. I 

{[. of MosEurv) Of CoMpA^ATive ^ 

EUM WUCW COMpLETED. 3 




26. The Projected Museum. It has already been stated that the com- 
pleted sections of the Museum of Comparative Zoology and Peabody Mu- 
seum of American Archaeology and Ethnology are but parts of one grand 
museum that is rapidly progressing. Below we give the ground plan of the 
projected buildings, the main portion of which will be 380 by 65 feet; 
the south wing, 206 by 85 feet; 
and the north wing, 206 by 65 feet. 
The ent* ; structure will have two 
lofty str 3s (with galleries), base- 
ment, ? Mansard roof, and will 
be const ^ted fire-proof . The thick- 
ness of t exterior walls, which are 
double,' IS follows, viz: basement, ^ 
28 inch ; first story, 24 inches; 
second . ry, 20 inches; and Man- 
sard 16 inches. All partition 
walls of brick, with plaster at- 
tached ectly to it. In the south 
wing th€ oor joists are six by twelve 
inches, e feet apart, and floored 
over wit liree-inch planks, covered 
above a . below with plaster one inch thick; in the north wing some parts 
of the \ ^ )rs are upon iron beams arched with brick. A brick Mansard 
roof wi replace the wooden one of the north wing as soon as the pro- 
posed .rgement will furnish room for the excess of materials in the present 
bu^ t Through the kindness of Robert H. Slack of Boston, the archi- 
tect V. e museum, we are enabled to present the elevation of the exten- 
sion t will probably be begun in the spring of 1878, and, fronting on 
the eas ide of Oxford Street, form the northwestern corner of the museum 
when completed. 

The ^'imated cost of the entire buildings is about three quarters of a mill- 
ion dollars. The Museum of Zoology and the Peabody Museum of American 
Archasology are distinct trusts, though both belong to Harvard University. 
The management of the Peabody Museum is in the hands of a distinct board 
of trustees, although the building and the collections therein belong to the 
*' President and Fellows of Harvard Colle2:e." 



K 



378fT. ^ 

Oxford Street. 

Ground Plan of Projected Museunn (26), 



44 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



West of the museum property is — 

27. Jarvis Field, a plot of ground reserved by the college for athletic 
sports, but especially for the University Base Ball Club, which has earhed an 




Elevation of the Southwest Corner of Projected Museum (26). 

enviable record as an amateur club. The following is a sketch of its his- 
tory : ^ — 

No organization for the practice of base ball existed at Harvard until De- 
cember, 1862, when Frank Wright and George A. Flagg, ''^^, then members 
of the freshman class, organized a class nine. In the spring of 1863 the Cam- 
bridge city government granted the use of part of the Common near the 

1 Prepared by F. W. Thayer, captain of the University Nine. 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 45 

Washington Elm for practice ground, and this was used until the spring of 
1864. The first recorded match was played at Providence, R. I., June 27, 
1863, between Harvard ''^^ and Brown '65, and resulted in a victory for the 
Harvard freshmen by a score of 27 to 17. 

In the fall of 1863 the incoming freshmen followed the example of the soph- 
omores, and organized a class nine. A hard-earned victory of ''^^ over '67 
showed the advisability of a union of the best players from the various classes, 
and on October 12, 1864, the University Club was formed. The old ground 
on the Common was given up, and the "Delta," now partially covered by 
Memorial Hall, was taken possession of by permission of the college faculty. 
In the spring of 1865 the University Nine was determined upon, and its first 
game was played in June, with the Trimountain Club of Boston, on the Fair 
Grounds at the South End, resulting in a victory for the University, 59 to 32. 
In September, 1864, John A. Lowell of Boston had presented a silver ball 
to the ball clubs of New England as an emblem of championship. The 
Lowell Club held it at this time, and considered Harvard their only formida- 
ble rival to the title of champion. July 15, 1865, the first of the series of 
games between this club and Harvard took place on Boston Common for this 
trophy, and was won by Harvard scoring 28 to 17. These contests continued 
until June 1, 1867, when the last game for the silver ball was played between 
these two clubs at Medford. It was one of the last " frc^ entrance " games, 
and the attendance was immense. Harvard was successful. Score, 39 to 28. 

In 186 7 the nine changed its bases to Jarvis Field, which had been given to 
the college for athletic sports in exchange for the Delta. The ground w^as laid 
out with the home plate about two hundred feet from Oxford Street, midway 
between Everett and Jarvis streets, the line from home base to second base 
running a little north of west. A convenient house was erected one hundred 
feet behind the home base, where the members of the nine and cricket play- 
ers kept their bats, balls, etc., besides having lockers for their uniforms, wash- 
bowls, and other conveniences. Seats were built in a semicircle, beginning 
at both ends of the club-house, and extending about two hundred feet in the 
direction of third and first bases. 

The first match game was played on Jarvis Field between the old rivals, 
Harvard and Lowell, May 24, 1867. Five thousand persons, including many 
ladies, were present. Dr. J. T. Harris presented the Harvard nine with an 
elegant gold and i^ilvcr mounted bat at the close of the game, which resulted 



46 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

as follows : Harvard, 32 ; Lowell, 26. June 24, 1868, the first inter-collegiate 
match took place on Jarvis Field, Harvard and Princeton being the contest- 
ants. The game was closely contested, as the score (17 to 16 in Harvard's 
favor) will testify. 

A correspondence with Yale had been going on all this spring (1868). 
(The class nine of '66 had challenged Yale in 1863, but at that time the latter 
had not learned the game.) Finally it was arranged to play in Worcester on 
the morning of the regatta, July 24, 1868, but it was postponed until the fol- 
lowing day on account of bad weather. Harvard won, with a score of 25 
to 17. 

In 1869 the most remarkable victory, up to this time, gained by Harvard, 
was from the Dartmouth College nine, 38 to 0; also, a creditable victory was 
won from the professional Athletics of Philadelphia. A victorious game was 
played with the Lowell Club, for the benefit of the boat club, at the close of 
the season. Score, 36 to 24. 

The following year, 1870, stands as the most brilliant in the history of the 
nine, and 'established the reputation of Harvard in this branch of athletics. 
Under the captaincy of Archibald McClure Bush, the nine played forty-four 
games, and won thirty-four of them. But one game was lost to an amateur 
club, and the victories included many from professional nines. A trip made 
through New York state, the South, and West, during the months of July and 
August, will account for twenty-six of these games, as it would have been 
impossible to play so large a number during the college term. 

The year 1871 shows no such imposing list of games and victories as the 
previous year did ; yet the nine retained its preeminence in amateur contests, 
and won a noteworthy victory from the professional Haymaker Club, by a 
score of 15 to 8. A great loss was sustained by the graduation of Bush, 
Wells, Reynolds, and Austin. 

The following year, 1872, the annual match with Yale was superseded by a 
series of games — the best two in three. Harvard won in the first two con- 
tests, and repeated her success in 1873, making a total of eight victories within 
five years for Harvard over Yale without a single defeat. The Boston pro- 
fessionals lost their first game with an amateur club when they played against 
Harvard. 

The years, 1874 and 1875, compared with previous ones, show poorly. In both, 
the orames with Yale were lost, and in the former Princeton twice defeated the 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 47 

nine. In the year 1874 the corporation ordered the seats and ckib-house on 
Jarvis Field to be taken down, as some of the residents on Everett Street 
looked upon them as eyesores, and were much annoyed during the summer 
by the noisy games of local nines. A law was also passed forbidding the nine 
to play on Jarvis Field with any but college clubs. This naturally limited the 
number of games in these two years. Permission was obtained to put up the 
seats for the months of May and June, provided they were removed before 
Commencement. 

The years 1876-77 bring us up to the present time. The disastrous defeats 
of the two previous years had certainly dampened but not entirely quenched 
base ball enthusiasm. In the fall of 1875, as soon as out-door practice was 
given up, an encouraging number of aspirants for vacant positions began work 
in the gymnasium. The spring season of 1876 opened auspiciously with the 
strong professional Lowell Club,^ and Harvard scored her first victory. During 
the season thirty- three games were played, and but nine lost. The college 
championship was Avon, and the professional Boston Ckib a second time de- 
feated. The midsummer vacation was employed by the college to grade 
Jarvis Field, which was uneven and above the level of Everett and Jarvis 
streets. But so slowly did the work progress that the nine was obliged to lay 
out grounds and erect seats on Holmes Field in the rear of the Scientific 
School, where all the practice and college games of 1877 were played. It 

' proved a cramped and decidedly uneven substitute, but nevertheless the nine 
. '^peated the brilliant record of the previous year. The same number (thirty- 
th/ee) of games was played, and only ten defeats suffered. The most ex- 
traordinary game on record was played with the Manchester Club, ending 
in a tie, to 0, after twenty-foin^ innings had been played. 
Across Jarvis Street, south of the Jarvis Field, is the -^ 
28. Holmes Field, another plot of ground used for out-door exercise, but 
generally devoted to foot ball. Therefore it is the field of the University Foot 
Ball Association, which was founded in 1873, but took no prominent part in 
the college athletic sports until 1874. The association is chiefly supported by 
subscriptions of the students, and at present is in a flourishing condition, while 
interest in the games appears to be increasing. That the foot ball club has 

^creditably sustained the reputation of the various Harvard athletic associations 
can be seen from the following condensed record of games, played under the 
Rugby rules, except the first game, which was under the Harvard rules : — 

1 Thi^ is a club from Lo\v<ill, Mass. ; not the original Lowell Club of Boston 



48 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



Xo. 


Date. 




1874. 


1 


May 14. 


2 


May 15. | 


8 


Oct. 23. 1 




1875. { 


4 


April. 1 


o 


Oct. 23. 1 


6 


Oct. 27. i 


V 


Nov. 13. 1 




1876. ^ 


8 


May 8. 


9 


Oct. 28. 


10 


Oct. 30. 


11 


Nov. 18. 




1877. 


12 


April 28. 


13 


Oct. 23. 


14 


Oct. 26. 


15 


Nov. 3. 


16 


Nov. 5. 



Club. 



Place. 



Mc Gill, Canada 
Mc Gill, Canada 
McGill, Canada 

Tufts 

All Canada 

Tufts 

Yale 

All Canada 

All Canada 

McGill, Canada 
Yale 

Princeton 

Tufts 

McGill, Canada 

Princeton 

Columbia 



Jarvis Field. . 
Jarvis Field.. 
Canada 

Medf ord 

Canada 

Jarvis Field. . 
New Haven . . 

Jarvis Field.. 

Canada 

Canada 

New Haven . . 

Holmes Field, 

Boston 

Boston 

New York 

New York. .. . 



Won by Harvard. 



3 games. 

Draw. 

3 touch-downs. 



2 goals and 2 touch-downs. 

1 goal. 

4 goals and 4 touch-downs. 

1 goal. 

2 goals and 3 touch-downs. 
1 goal. 

Scored 3 touch-downs. 

1 goal and 1 touch-down. 



1 goal and 4 touch-downs. 

Scored 2 iourh-downs. 

6 goals and 9 touch-do^^^ls. 



Lost by 
Harvard . 



Draw. 

1 goal. 



Princeton scored 
1 touch-doicn. 



1 goal. 



Total 16 games : 12 won, 3 lost, 1 drawn. Italics shoiv score of games lost. 



Now, returning to the east side of Memorial Hall, and passing along Quincy 
Street, Ave reach — 

29. The Gymnasium, by no means an imposing structure, completed, in 
1860, at a cost of about S9,500, including apparatus, — S8,000 of this sum be- 
ing given by a graduate who declined to make known his name. It is built of 
brick, octagonal in form, 74 feet in diameter and 40 feet high, and contains 
dressing rooms, but no bath rooms, two bowling alleys, and other apparatus 
compatible with its size. Besides those who daily attend the gymnasium for 
exercise, the '• Harvard Rifle Corps," recently organized by the present 
teacher of gymnastics, drills there regularly twice a week. A tournament is 
also held there annually by the Harvard Athletic Association. These tourna- 
ments comprise sparring and wrestling bouts, vaulting, parallel bar exercises, 
and other gymnastic sports, for which prizes are awarded. The association is 
open for membership to all students connected with the university, and is 
. entirely supported by the fees received from new members. 

Owing to the increased interest manifested in this kind of exercise, the 
present building is not large enough to meet the Avants of the students of tlie 




THE GYMNASIUM (29). 




THE BOAT HOUSE (30). 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 49 

university, and President Eliot has repeatedly recommended, in his annual 
reports, that a new and more commodious gymnasium be erected, and the 
present one converted into a swimming-bath. As the result of the president's 
recommendation, designs are being drawn for a new gymnasium that will 
probably be begun in May, 1878. 

The New Gymnasium will be erected on the central and conspicuous site 
west of the Scientific School, on the corner of Cambridge Street and Holmes' 
Place, and will be a commodious and handsome brick building with sandstone 
trimmings. It is intended to give the design the character of colonial archi- 
tecture so that it may harmonize with the old college buildings. The main 
hall will be finished up into the roof, and be 52 feet high to the ridge; its 
length is to be 112 feet, and width varying from 63 feet to 80 feet. Ample 
accommodations will be ])rovided for dressing rooms, lockers, baths, etc. The 
crew will have special quarters fitted up with hydraulic machines, and the 
nine will be provided for in the basement with exercise room sufficiently large 
for ball practice. I^ine bowling alleys are to be placed in the basement. A 
gallery with a track for running will surround the main hall. In short, the 
gymnasium when completed will be particularly adapted for the various athletic 
sports, and be of ample size to accommodate the students. The building, 
about 112 by 120 feet, will probably cover an area of 12,000 square feet. The 
cost is estimated at about $50,000, which sum is generously furnished by Au- 
gustus Hemenway (class of 1875) of Boston. The architects are Peabody and 
Stearns of Boston. 

It is thought best to mention here — 

30. The Boat House, since it is so closely allied in its objects with the 
Gymnasium, yet separated from it in location. The house itself is of interest 
chiefly from the fact that it is the head-quarters of the University Boat Club, 
whose history ^ is as follows : — 

In the fall of 1844 thirteen members of the junior class bought, for $85, the 
" Oneida," an eight-oared barge, thirty-seven feet long (the winning boat in a 
mechanics' regatta at Chelsea), and organized the '' Oneida Boat Club." A 
few weeks later, some seniors in like manner organized the " Iris Boat Club." 
The Oneida was kept in a shed just across the Brighton bridge ; the Iris was 
moored in the stream. The two clubs adopted fancy uniforms, and built 
dressing rooms on the wharf. A race soon took place, the course being from 
1 Furnished by George L. Cheney, secretary of the H. U. B. G. * 



50 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

a little below Brighton, down through the bridge, and the Oneida won. In i 
the spring of 1846 the cKibs, then three in number, built a boat house a little 
below the college coal wharf. Such was the beginning of boating at Harvard. 

In those days there were no inter-collegiate races, with the consequent neces- 
sity of training hard for the honor of the college ; and rowing was engaged in 
for fun, pure and simple. All sorts of excursions were made. At one time 
the Oneidas visited Hull, and took young ladies out in the boat ; at another 
they were entertained by the midshipmen on board the frigate Cumberland, 
in Boston Harbor ; and once they received the Boston clubs at the boat 
house, which was decorated for the convivial occasion. 

In 1852 a challenge was received from Yale. Harvard had no crew and 
but one boat, the Oneida, then ten years old. Eight men were hastily selected, 
who rowed together only three or four times, for fear of blistering their hands. 
The race took place on Lake Winnipiseogee, August 3, and the Oneida won, 
receiving as a prize the black walnut oars now kept among the trophies of the 
club. Another race was rowed under similar circumstances, and with a 
like result, at Springfield, July 21, 1855. The Oneida was kept till 1856, and 
then sold to Dartmouth. Soon after she was washed over a dam and lost, 
at the advanced age of fifteen years. 

In 1855 the clubs, then five in number, resolved to have a boat built solely 
for speed. Subscriptions from graduates were solicited, and in 1856 the boat 
was obtained, — an eight-oared lap-streak, fifty-one feet long, no rudder, with 
outriggers, and decked at each end with canvas. To receive the ** Harvard," 
as she was called, a university boat house was built a short distance below 
the former one. 

The first six oared shell in America was built for Harvard in 1857 by James 
Mackay, at St. John. She was 40 feet long and 26 inches wide, made of white 
pine, weighed 150 pounds, and cost $200. With this shell spoon oars were in- 
troduced ; and her crew was the first to train with any regularity. She was in 
ten races, in eight of which she won the first prize, and in the other two, the 
second. When broken up, in 1865, her fragments were eagerly sought by 
relic-hunters. 

In 1858 Harvard invited the other colleges to institute an annual inter-col- 
legiate regatta. These regattas, with a break of three years during the war, and 
with the changes in plan noted below, have extended from 1859 to the present 
year (1878). Down to 18 70, however, Harvard rowed many more races 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 5 I 

with various outside clubs than with other colleges. A sophomore race between 
Yale and Harvard was rowed in 1864; and since then there have been frequent 
sophomore, freshmen, or scientific school races in connection with those of 
the university. The " Harvard College Regatta," later known as the " Class 
Races," was instituted in 1865 ; in this, all college crews except the University 
were to row annually for the Beacon cup, presented by the sophomore crew 
of the class of ^^^., who had won it in the Beacon Regatta of 1864. 

In 1865-66, as the honorable emoluments of rowing were now much in- 
creased, the duties were made proportionally heavy. A regular system of 
training was adopted. During the winter the crew took long runs in the 
open air and long pulls in the gymnasium. A liberal and hearty diet was 
prescribed for the whole year. English rowing manuals were carefully studied, 
and the style of stroke changed accordingly. The result of this system was 
that for five years (1866-70) Harvard carried off the university prizes at the 
inter-collegiate regattas. In 1869 a four, with coxswain, was sent to England. 
They met Oxford, August 27, on the Thames, and in a race from Putney to 
Mortlake were beaten by six seconds. 

The Harvard University Boat Club was formed in 1869; one year later the 
present constitution was adopted. The old boat houses were then so dilap- 
idated that during the winter the shell was stored in the cellar of Appleton 
Chapel; so a new house was built (the middle one in the picture), and opened 
in the spring of 1870. The vague system of inter-collegiate races was given a 
definite form by a meeting of delegates at Springfield in April, 1871, who 
formed the " Rowing Association of American Colleges." For a few years a 
larger number of colleges entered the races, the highest number, thirteen, 
being reached in 1875. 

The " Club System," designed to supersede the Class Races, was started 
in 1874, to render boating, at a moderate price, .accessible to all. To the Har- 
vard University Boat Club were joined four sub-clubs, open to all members of 
the principal club, and to each sub-club w^as assigned a precinct in which its 
members must reside. A ncAv house (the one on the left in the picture) was 
built, and Blakey, the boat-builder, undertook to provide boats and oars, and 
keep everything in repair. As this system has not proved a perfect success, the 
clubs are to be connected more closely with the Harvard University Boat Club, 
whereby they will obtain an increase of facilities with a decrease of expenses. 

An eight-oared, four-mile race was rowed in 1876, between Harvard and 



52 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

Yale, which Yale won. In the same year Harvard rowed her last race in the 
Association, which has since collapsed. In 1877 Harvard won eight-oared 
races from both Columbia and Yale ; and for 1878 she has agreed to row 
another such race with Yale. Harvard has taken part in twenty -three races 
in which she met university crews, and has taken the first prize in eleven of 
these. She has met Yale nineteen times, and defeated her thirteen times. 

The system of training is now more perfect than ever before. The crew 
practice on the river through the whole college year, except from the last of 
November to the first of March ; and during the winter months they row daily 
on hydraulic machines and run several miles. They are constantly coached 
by their captain or some famous Harvard oarsman, — professional trainers have 
never been employed. The crew's diet is plain but liberal, and for a few 
months before the race they have regular training fare. The annual expenses 
of the club are about $2,500, most of which goes for the crew. The money 
is raised by subscription among the undergraduates ; occasional gifts, how- 
ever, are received from graduates. The boat house was repaired and fitted 
up by the college in 1876. In the upper story are lockers, a bath room, and a 
sitting room; in the lower story the boats are kept. The picture of the houses 
was taken in the winter, when the floats and bridges were not down. The 
building on the right is Blakey's boat-shop. 

A paper shell was used in the races of 1877; and paper, as it is found to 
be stiff er and tougher, now seems likely to take the place of cedar in boat- 
building. 

A short distance east of Memorial Hall, on Cambridge Street, is — 

31. f Felton Building. Continuing southward on Quincy Street, several 
i-esidences occupied by the professors are passed on the right, and at No. 17 
Quincy .Street we reach the — 

. 32. President's House, a neat two- story and Mansard roof brick dwelling 
situated on an elevated position in the college yard, a short distance east 
of Gore Hall (8). The money which paid for it was the gift of Peter C. 
Brooks, who, in 1846, gave $10,000 for this purpose. This sum accumulated 
until 1860, when it was more than doubled. Over the entrance is the college 
seal. The first occupant was President Felton, from whom it passed to 
President Hill. At present it is occupied by President Eliot, who has resided 
there since 1869. 

The next house beyond, on the same side of Quincy Street, at the corner 
of Harvard Street, is the — 




HOLVOKE hZ^ZL {.7). 




ROOM No. 9 IN HOLYOKE HOUSE. 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 



53 




Dana House (33 



33. Dana House, so called because it was built, in 1823, by the family of 

Chief Justice Dana, and occupied 
by them until 1832. The house 
differs chiefly from its original ap- 
pearance in having a cupola, which, 
together with a revolving dome, 
was placed upon the roof for the 
accommodation of a reflecting tel- 
escope. The cupola was added in 
1839, and was the initial step to- 
wards an observatory at Harvard. 
(For the present Observatory see 
49.) The house was occupied for 
several years by the late Prof. Fel- 
ton, and afterwards by the Rev. F. 
D. Huntington. For the past eight- 
een years it has been the residence of Rev. A. P. Peabody, D. D., preacher 
to the university. 

On the diagonally opposite corner is — 

34. fBeck Hall; and next this hall, on the east, is the — 

35. f Old Cambridge Baptist Church. Turning to the right into Har- 
vard Street, on the south side, opposite Gore Hall (8), we pass the — 

36. f Bishop's Palace. A short distance beyond, at the southwest corner 
of Holyoke Street, is — 

37. Holyoke House, erected, in 1871, by the corporation, at a cost of 
$120,000, as an investment. It is five stories high, including the Mansard 
roof, is nearly 100 feet square, and is built of brick with freestone trimmings 
in the Romanesque style. Upon the ground floor there are four commodious 
shops, three recitation rooms, and three suites of apartments. The building 
contains forty-seven elegant suites of rooms that comprise a study, two bed- 
rooms, bath room, and clothes closets. These are among the choicest rooms 
in the college dormitories. The corridors are heated by steam apparatus, 
while the rooms are provided with grates and marble mantles. The hallway 
is lighted by a raised skylight in the centre of the building, and the stairway 
is broad and easy to ascend. In addition to the two stairways, — one lead- 
ing from the entrance on Harvard Street and the other (of iron) from the 



54 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

entrance on Holyoke Street, — there are iron fire escapes attached to the 
building. Although the rooms are quite high, special care was taken to secure 
thorough ventilation. For the years 1876-77 and 1877-78 every room was 
rented, which fact shows the popularity of the building. 

Adjoining Holyoke House on the west, and fronting on Harvard Street, 
stands — 

38. f Little's Block. Crossing Harvard Square, we arrive at — 

39. College House. The first house of this name was an " ugly, three- 
story, brick-ended, wooden-fronted" building, that stood on the northern 
part of the site of the present structure, near the corner of Church Street. 
Although built for private use, it was occupied the greater part of the time 
by students. It was familiarly known as the " Den." The external and 
internal appearance is said to have justified this nanie.^ 

Edward Everett in 1852 wrote about the first College House as follows : 
'^ I lived in it in my freshman year. Whence the name of '- Wiswal's Den,' 
I hardly dare say; there was something worse than ' old fogy ' about it. There 
was a dismal tradition that, at some former period, it had been the scene of 
murder. A brutal husband had dragged his wife by the hair up and down 
stairs, and then killed her. On the anniversary of the murder — and what 
day that was no one knew — there were sights and sounds — stridor ferri 
tractceque calence — enough to appal the strongest sophomore. But for my- 
self I can truly say that I got through my freshman year without having seen 
the ghost of Mr. Wiswal or his lamented lady." 

South of the " Den" were the college carpenter shop and the college en- 
gine house. In 17 74 the college purchased the property. 

Where now stands the southern part of College House stood the second 
College House, in which the law professor was accommodated fifty years ago. 
The third building of that name, also constructed of wood, was situated on the 
southwest corner of Dunster and Harvard streets. 

In 1846 the old buildings were taken down, and the present College House 
was erected. The Mansard roof was added in 1871. The rooms of this build- 
ing are rented at low rates, and are chiefly occupied by students who depend 
upon their exertions and economy to complete their course. It is styled the 
"Grinder's Home " by some of the students, possibly owing to the indefati- 
gable application of the occupants. The Society of Christian Brethren, organ- 
ized in 1802, occupies room 24. The lower story is occupied by the post- 
office, Charles River National Bank, a savings bank, and several shops. 




THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE (32). 




COLLEGE HOUSE (39). 



r 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS, 55 



We have now seen the university buildings in the immediate vicinity of 
the college proper, and there remain yet to be seen in Cambridge the Bo- 
tanic Garden (48) and the Astronomical Observatory (49), which are de- 
scribed below, and will be met with in " A Walk through Cambridge" (see 
page 63), under the numbers corresponding to those attached to the follow- 
ing descriptions: — 

48. Botanic Garden,^ founded in 1805, situated on the northwest corner of 
Garden and Linnean streets. The land, about seven and a half acres, is said 
to have been given by Mr. Craigie, and the funds for its formation and sup- 
port were raised partly by subscription and partly by a grant from the state 
of some wild lands in the District of Maine. The present institution was 
completed, and indeed the current expenses met, with funds that were derived 
from the state grant and private subscriptions. 

As we enter from Garden Street, to the right is the garden proper, and to 
the left a chain of buildings in the following order: the professor's house, 
built in 1810, the herbarium, with a library, laboratory, and lecture room 
attached, and the conservatory. 

The herbarium, the finest in this country, is well worth the inspection of 
visitors; the room containing the large and choice collection of specimens is 
surrounded with a small gallery from which hang pictures of the most dis- 
tinguished American and European botanists. On the north side of the room 
is a marble tablet bearing the name of Nathaniel Thayer, through whose 
liberality the building was erected in 1864 at a cost of $15,000. In the library, 
containing 4,000 volumes, are some rare and beautifully illustrated works on 
botany. The portion of the library presented, in 1865, by John Amory Lowell 
(class of 1815) deserves special attention. The adjoining laboratory and lect- 
ure room were added, in 1871, through the munificence of an anonymous 
donor. The main conservatory range covers a space of 3,720 square feet, and 
is divided into six compartments* so as fitly to accommodate plants from tropi- 
cal and sub-tropical countries. The cactus house covers an area of 875 square 
feet. This range is supplemented by rows of pits and frames having a glass 
area of 1,000 square feet. 

In the green houses alone some 1,300 different species of plants are culti- 
vated. Among these are 210 orchids, 300 ferns and club-mosses, and 200 

1 In going to the Botanic Garden or the Astronomical Observator}^, direct from Boston, take the 
Garden Street cars, at Bowdoin Square, getting off at Chauncy Street. 



56 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

cactuses and other succulents. There are extensive rockeries for the accom- 
modation of rare mountain, bulbous, and early blooming plants, including 
some of our choicest native species. 

Preference is given to native plants, and no pains are spared to bring to- 
gether the largest collection possible, which is already very extensive. The 
United States compositae grown here is the finest group in any garden in the 
world. 

At present the out-door gardens are being entirely remodeled and replanted 
according to strict botanical arrangement. All the plants are distinctly la- 
beled and conveniently reached by grassy paths that diverge from the general 
walks. The herbarium and conservatory, as well as the grounds, are open 
daily to visitors. 

Diagonally opposite to the Botanic Garden is the — 

49. Astronomical Observatory, situated on the corner of Bond and Gar- 
den streets, which, like the other departments of the university, had a small 
beginning. Although the idea of establishing an astronomical observatory 
in connection with the college originated in the early part of the present cent- 
ury, yet it was not until the year 1839 that any effective steps were taken. 
In this year the Dana House (33) was fitted up for the continuance of the 
observations which had already been undertaken by William Cranch Bond, 
designed for comparison with those made by the United States Exploring Ex- 
pedition. Soon after this, in anticipation of a new building, twelve acres of 
land which belonged to the Craigie estate were purchased by the college, but 
in the interest of economy only the six acres which form a part of the rising 
ground called Summer Hill were retained for the Observatory. In 1 843, under 
the impulse of a renewed interest in astronomy that had been awakened by 
the celebrated comet of that year, at a small meeting held in the office of J. 
Ingersoll Bowditch of Boston, measures were taken which resulted in the sub- 
scription of a considerable sum for the purpose of obtaining a large telescope, 
equatorially mounted, and a suitable building to receive it. With these funds 
the present observatory building, with the exception of the west wing, added 
in 1851, was completed in 1846, and the instruments removed from the Dana 
House. During the next year the equatorial telescope from Munich was re- 
ceived and mounted. The aperture of the telescope is fifteen inches, and the 
focal length twenty- two feet and six inches. Its value is about $25,000. 

A transit circle, made in London, arrived in 1848. Shortly before this time 




d bUlMIMli^ UAKUEN i^48j. 




THE ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY (49). 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 57 

two comet-seekers had been given by Mr. Bowditcli and President Quincy 
respectively. Since then a chronograph, spectroscope, meridian circle, and an 
equatorial telescope of five and a half inches aperture, with a driving clock, 
and also apparatus for photographing the sun, and other instruments, have 
been added. In 1849 the Observatory was placed on a firm basis by the 
bequest of Edward Bromfield Phillips (class of 1845), who left to the college 
$100,000. The interest of that sum was to be applied annually for the pay- 
ment of salaries at the Observatory, and for the purchase of books and instru- 
ments. There are now about 3,000 volumes in the library. 

In 1872 a method was adopted of transmitting to Boston signals for the reg- 
ulation of time, which are now used by various establishments. The method 
is as follows: a local circuit within the Observatory is broken every two sec- 
onds by a clock regulated to mean time and kept fifteen and one half seconds 
faster than mean time at the Observatory, in order to allow for the difference 
of longitude between Cambridge and the State House in Boston. The clock is 
so constructed as to omit one of its signals before the beginning of each minute, 
which is consequently marked by the first signal given after the pause. The 
pause before the beginning of every fifth minute is made longer than the oth- 
ers, by the omission of several additional signals. 

Visitors are not admitted to the Observatory, because the work of the estab- 
lishment would be interfered with by frequent visitors. 

Three important departments of the university are situated outside of Cam- 
bridge — two in Boston and one in Jamaica Plain. These are as follows: — 

1st. The Medical School, founded in 1782, situated on North Grove 
Street in Boston "in order to secure those advantages for clinical instruc- 
tion and for the study of practical anatomy which are found only in large 
cities." 

The Boston Medical Society, an association formed in 1780, under the 
lead of several of the principal physicians in the city, may be said to have 
given the impetus to the movement which resulted in the establishment of a 
medical department connected with the university. For, under the auspices 
of this society, Dr. John Warren, a brother of General Joseph Warren who 
fell at Bunker Hill, delivered in the winter of 1781 a course of anatomical 
lectures, which were so successful that Pi-esident Willard and some of the 
corporation who had attended them were led to think of organizing a med- 



58 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

ical school to be connected with the college. At the request of the corpo- 
ration, in 1782, Dr. Warren drew up the outlines of a plan, which in its main 
features was accepted by them and confirmed by the board of overseers; 
but the school did not go into operation until the next year, *' the lectures 
being delivered in Cambridge before a small number of medical students 
and those members of the senior class in college who had obtained the con- 
sent of their parents." 

At first there were only three professors, one of them being Dr. Warren, 
through whose ability and energy the medical school was enabled to over- 
come the difficulties which it had to encounter in the beginning. 

The lectures were delivered in Cambridge until the year 1810, when the 
school was transferred to Boston for the reasons mentioned above. In 1816 
a building, under the name of the Massachusetts Medical College, specially 
constructed for the needs of medical instruction, was erected on Mason 
Street by a grant obtained from the commonwealth, and was occupied for 
nearly forty years. It was then sold to the Natural History Society, as the 
needs of the school demanded a larger building. In 1846 the present build- 
ing was erected on a piece of land given by Dr. George Parkman, and still 
retains the name of the Massachusetts Medical College, though it belongs to 
the university. It adjoins the Massachusetts General Hospital. 

The building is a brick structure of three stories. 

Th-e ground floor is devoted to the chemical laboratory, which furnis^hes room 
and apparatus for a hundred students, and to the janitor's apartments; on 
the first floor are the medical and clinical lecture rooms and the library, 
containing 2,000 volumes of medical works; and on the floor above are the 
professors' and demonstrators' rooms, the Anatomical Theatre, and the Mu- 
seum Hall, in which is kept the Warren Anatomical Museum. The main 
collection was presented by Dr. John Collins Warren, accompanied with a 
gift of $6,000 for its preservation and increase. Many generous donations 
have since been added, including the excellent series of Thibert's models, 167 
in number, given by Dr. G. Hay ward in 1847, as well as the ninety others made 
by the same artist, and presented by Dr. John Ware in 1849. A very large 
and exceedingly valuable collection of models, representing diseases of the 
skin, was presented by Dr. Edward Wiggles worth. Through the liberality 
and untiring exertions of the curator. Dr. J. B. S. Jackson, the museum has 
been made one of the finest in the country, and through his influence the 




THE MEDICAL SCHOOL (Page 57). 






**, 










pMft^^» 






tl 




THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION (Page 60), 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 59 

Boston Society for Medical Improvement deposited in the museum a very 
extensive and carefully arranged cabinet. The attic contains the microscopi- 
cal and physiological laboratories, the latter established with the bequest of 
George Woodbury Swett (class of 1865). 

In addition to the chemical laboratory in the building, there is a large 
room on Cambridge Street, fitted up in the same manner to afford additional 
accommodations. A new medical college building will be erected as soon as 
a suitable site is secured; over $150,000 have been subscribed for this pur- 
pose. 

2d. The Dental School, situated at No. 50 Allen Street in Boston to 
secure in connection with the medical department the advantages for clinical 
instruction found only in large cities. At one of the regular meetings of the 
Massachusetts Dental Society, in 1865, a committee was appointed to consult 
with a committee of the medical faculty as to the feasibility and propriety of 
establishing a dental chair in the medical school. The matter grew in their 
bands until in July, 1867, on the recommendation of the medical faculty, the 
corporation voted to establish a dental school. This school opened in Novem- 
ber, 1868, with a full corps of instructors and a reasonable number of students. 
At first the plan of the school was the same as that of all the medical and den- 
tal schools in the country ; that is, the student devoted four months to a win- 
ter course of lectures, and studied with a practitioner for the rest of the 
year; but in February, 1872, it was voted to establish a summer school which 
should be equivalent to, and gradually dispense with, private pupilage. This 
c6urse was optional with the student, but was increasingly successful until in 
February, 1875, a vote was passed changing the whole basis of instruction, 
viz: making the terms of the school nine instead of four months, to coincide 
with those of the medical and other schools of the university, and the 
course a progressive one of two years, no instruction of the first year being 
repeated in the second. The student is now obliged to pass an examination 
in the studies of the first year, which are identical with those of the first year 
of the medical school, and by the same professors, before he is allowed to enter 
the second year class. Three years of study are necessary for admission to 
the examination for a degree, but one year may be under a private instructor. 

3d. The Bussey Institution, a school of agriculture and horticulture, 
situated at Jamaica Plain, near Forest Hills, on the Boston and Providence 
Railroad, established as a department of Harvard University under the 



6o HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 

trusts created by the will of Benjamin Bussey of Roxbury, bearing date July, 
1835. By a provision in the will the bequest was not available forthwith ; 
but, in 1861, an amount of property, estimated at $413,000, was transferred 
by the trustees to the corporation. One fourth of the net income from this 
property was immediately applied, in accordance with the directions of the 
donor, to the uses of the divinity school, and another fourth to the uses 
of the law school at Cambridge; the remainder was left to accumulate for 
a building fund. A descendant of Mr. Bussey still held a life interest in the 
estate at Jamaica Plain, about 360 acres; but in 1870 an arrangement was 
made by which seven acres were relinquished to the college, and the organ- 
ization of the school was immediately begun. In the same year the main 
structure, a commodious building of Roxbury pudding stone, 112 by 73 feet, 
in the Victoria Gothic style of architecture, was erected on the spot desig- 
nated by Mr. Bussey. By the end of the next year green houses and sheds 
were built, the grounds and avenues prepared, and a water supply provided. 
The main building contains an office, a library of 2,000 volumes, recitation and 
collection rooms, and a laboratory with store rooms and a glass house attached. 
The cost of putting up and furnishing these buildings was about $62,000. In 
1872 the University received $100,000 of the trustees under the will of James 
Arnold of New Bedford ; the purpose of the gift being to establish in the 
Bussey Institution a professorship of tree culture, and to create an arboretum 
which shall ultimately contain all trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that 
can grow there in the open air. The complete control of the estate has re- 
cently passed into the hands of the college, and a particular portion of it, 
about 137 acres, which had been previously specified for the arboretum, is 
now being laid out as an open park, with walks and roadways, and, with the 
natural beauties of the estate, will form a delightful resort. Many trees have< 
already been propagated for the park, both at the Bussey Institution and a1 
the Botanic Garden. The single object of the school is to promote and diffuse] 
a thorough knowledge of agriculture and horticulture, and it is intended foii 
young men who expect to follow such pursuits. ■I 

Sever Hall is the name of a building shortly to be erected east of G( 
Hall (8) to provide recitation and lecture rooms — the most pressing need 
of the college for many years past. The building will cost about $100,000 
which sum, together with an additional $40,000 for other purposes, was re 
cently left to the college by the late Mrs. James Warren Sever of Boston 



^ 



A WALK THROUGH CAMBRIDGE. 



rriHE visitor has already seen the greater part of 
the university buildings, and it is intended now 
to guide him among historical and public land- 
marks of Old Cambridge. The descriptions that 
follow, as far as number 40, are of places not 
owned by the college, but mentioned in the 
'' Walk through Harvard." They are arranged 
below in progressive numerical order to facili- 
tate reference to them. It will be remembered 
that the numbers also refer both to the location 
(when within the limits) on the key plan, page 
4, and to the illustration (if there is any) per- 
taining to the description. 

Old Mile Stone. 

31. Felton Building, situated on the southeast corner of Cambridge and 
Trowbridge streets, on a lot of land containing 24,000 square feet, was com- 
pleted in 1877, and is the most recently erected dormitory. It is named in 
honor of the late Cornelius C. Felton, the twentieth president of Harvard Col- 
lege. It was built by Henry Bigelow Williams, but is now owned by F. W. 
Andrews, of Boston. The building is of brick, three stories high, having a 
front of 158 feet, in the Elizabethan style of architecture, and is divided by 
brick walls into three separate sections, communicating with one another on the 
different floors by wide halls, which extend the entire length of the building. 
Three stair-cases lead from the three entrances, one from each side of the dor- 
mitory. There are thirty-six suites of rooms, very light and well ventilated, of 




64 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

which twelve — the corner rooms — consist of a parlor, two bedrooms, a bath 
room with hot and cold water, clothes closets and coal-bin; the remaining 
twenty-four suites differing from these only in having one bedroom in place of 
two. Each suite is intended to accommodate two persons. The rooms are pro- 
. vided with open fire-places, and the halls are heated by steam and lighted by 
gas. The janitor, who occupies the snug brick house adjoining in the rear, 
has charge of the building. The rent for suites ranges from $150 to $200 per 
annum, making them low priced rooms, while the accommodations render them 
quite desirable. When the grounds are laid out, this building will be one of 
the attractive surroundings of Harvard. It is situated conveniently to the col- 
lege yard and Memorial Hall, and is readily accessible from Boston by the 
Cambridge Street horse cars, which pass the door, or by the Broadway cars, 
which pass within a half minute's walk from the building. 

34. Beck Hall is situated at the junction of Harvard, Main, and Quincy 
streets. It is not at all surprising that among nearly fifteen hundred students 
there should be some whose parents or guardians are willing to provide them 
with every possible comfort, especially Avhen it is remembered that the stu- 
dents of Harvard include the sons of many of the wealthiest men in the coun- 
try. To supply as many comforts for students as can be furnished in a public 
building, a new dormitory was built in 1876, at a cost of nearly $100,000, by 
private enterprise, ^y reason of the time of its completion it was to have 
been styled Centennial Hall ; but upon further consideration the owner decided 
to name the building Beck Hall, in memory of the late Professor Charles Beck. 
This is the finest of the students' halls in its arrangements and furnishings. 
The rooms are fitted up with much elegance, — costly furniture, upholstery, 
and decorations abounding throughout the building. No doubt a graduate of 
the early part of this century, when a carpeted floor was almost unknown, 
would now behold with wonder the carpets that are spread upon the floors of 
all the dormitories, and upon those in this one in particular. N. J. Bradlee of 
Boston was the architect of the building. It is four stories high, with a base- 
ment; its length is 109 feet, and width 60 feet. The walls, resting upon a cut 
stone basement, are of pressed brick interspersed with black bricks and tiles, 
and trimmed with brown stone. There are twenty-eight suites of rooms, twelve 
of which are double, and sixteen single. A single suite comprises a study, 
two closets, bedroom, bath room with hot and cold water, and coal bin; a 
double suite differing from the above merely in having an additional bedroom 




^1 



\-B3] 1 31 1 31 11 3 III 
3^j 3 3 1 ia 33 3 H i 




BECK HALL (34). 




ROOM No. 31 IN BECK HALL. 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 65 

and closet. Each suite is furnished with handsome chandeHers, steam heat- 
ing apparatus, white marble mantels for open fire-places, and a fixed marble- 
top washstand provided with hot and cold water. All the washstand orna- 
ments are nickel-plated, and the faucets have automatic stops. The entire 
interior, even the janitor's lodge in the basement, is finished in ash, and all 
the rooms and halls have plaster cornices. A marble slab is placed in the 
basement to hold the silver-plated mouth-pieces of the speaking-tubes that 
are connected with each study. These tubes afford the occupants an easy 
mode of communication with the janitor, who can be readily summoned by 
means of the thumb-knob in the room connected by wires with the annunci- 
ator in the basement. The apartments are lofty, well lighted, and thoroughly 
ventilated. On the first floor the rooms are eleven feet high. Two entrances, 
one on Harvard and the other on Main Street, open into a spacious hall, 
lighted by a skylight in the roof over the central part, and paved with mar- 
ble tiles. The glass of this building presents a marked contrast with that of 
the oldest dormitories, — in the former the size being 40 by 28 inches, while 
in the latter it is 6 by 8 inches. On the first floor there is a neat bulletin 
board which indicates whether an occupant of a room is '* in " or "out." 
Near the entrance on Main Street the Post-office Department has placed a 
letter-box, from which the letters are gathered several times each day. 
Around the building there is considerable open space, rendering it light and 
airy, and affording beautiful views in every direction. The property is owned 
by Mrs. Anna L. Moring of Cambridge, and is in charge of her agent, James 
C. Davis, 30 Court Street, Boston. 

35. Old Cambridge Baptist Church is the spacious stone edifice extending 
from Main to Harvard Street, opposite Prescott Street. The church was 
organized August 20, 1844. Their first meeting-house was a wooden struct- 
ure, on the corner of Kirkland Street and Holmes Place. This house was 
sold October 23, 1866, to what is now known as the North Avenue Con- 
gregational Society, and was removed bodily, without even disturbing the 
steeple, to the southerly corner of North Avenue and Roseland Street, 
where it now stands. For the next few years the congregation worshiped 
partly in the meeting-house of the Shepard Congregational Society and 
partly in Lyceum Hall. Meanwhile arrangements were made and contri- 
butions on a liberal scale were oifered for the erection of a new building. 
The effort was successful, and resulted in the present edifice, which was 
5 



66 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



dedicated September 29, 1870. The church is an imposing pile of Gothic 
architecture. It has received but little interior or exterior decoration, its 

massive and grace- 
ful proportions ren- 
dering this unneces- 
sary. Its cost, in- 
cluding the ground, 
was about Si 24, 000. 
The society which 
built it, although 
constituting one of 
the youngest relig- 
ious organizations of 
Old Cambridge, has 
become numerous 
and influential. The 
pastor in charge is 
Rev. Franklin John- 
son, D. D. 

The best view of 

Old Cambridge Baptist Church (3 5). ^^e building Is that 

shown in the illustration, taken from Main Street, looking toward the north- 
west; but, viewing it from any point, the visitor cannot but admire its grandeur 
and simplicity. 

36. The Bishop's Palace is the familiar name applied to the large square 
wooden house on the south side of Harvard Street, directly opposite Gore 
Hall (8). Its true front is toward Mount Auburn Street, which once, as the 
highroad, passed along the edge of the garden. At that time the house en- 
joyed a charming, uninterrupted view over the Charles. It was erected, 
probably in 1761, by the Rev. East Apthorp, the first Episcopal clergyman 
settled in Cambridge. On account of its elegance and proximity to Har- 
vard, Mayhew and his orthodox contemporaries regarded the house with 
considerable distrust. Dr. Apthorp was thought to have aspired to the 
episcopate, and his house was alluded to as ''• the palace of one of the hum- 
ble successors of the Apostles." His antagonists rendered his ministry so 
uncomfortable that he gave up his charge in 1764, and removed to England. 




AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 



67 




John Borland, a merchant, next occupied it, until the breaking out of hostili- 
ties in 17 75 caused him to flee to Boston. He is said to have built the third 
story to provide additional 
accommodation for his 
household slaves. Then 
General Putnam converted 
the house into the head- 
quarters of the Connecticut 
troops, and retained it ac^ 
such until the battle of 
Bunker Hill. Three com- 
panies were quartered there 
up to the time that the 
committee of safety took 
possession of it. It was 
next the enforced residence Bishop's Palace (36). 

of General Burgoyne. After the Bevolutionary War the place passed into 
the hands of Jonathan Simpson, Jr. 

The house was originally two stories high, and resembled Longfellow's 
Home (54). The hall is broad and pleasing, while the staircase is railed in 
with curiously wrought balusters of various designs. The left hand recep- 
tion room was an elegant state apartment, with high ceiling and richly carved 
woodwork. Old Dutch tiles, with their allegories, are still in the fire-place, 
which yet retains its ornamental fire-back. In the second-story chamber, 
which was used by General Burgoyne, the walls are formed in panels, dec- 
orated with costly picturesque paper. The property is now owned and occu- 
pied by the family of Mrs. Elizabeth B. Manning, a venerable lady of ninety- 
two years, who can yet clearly recall and relate many changes that have 
occurred in Cambridge during her long residence here. 

38. Little's Block, situated on the southeast corner of Harvard and Dun- 
ster streets, adjoins Holyoke House (37) on the west, and forms with it the 
imposing row opposite the college yard. Little's Block, erected by Charles 
C. Little, comprises two separate buildings, generally distinguished as the 
*'old" and "new" halls. The former was built in 1854, and the latter in 
1869, at times when the college needed additional accommodations for stu- 
dents, and did not have means available for the erection of new halls. Both 



68 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

are of brick, trimmed with sandstone, five stories high, 105 feet long and 60 
feet deep. In 1877 the entire block was remodeled, when an attractive brick 
front replaced that of the old hall, and an additional story was put upon the 
entire structure. Each building contains sixteen suites of large and commo- 
dious apartments, including study, bedrooms, closets, and coal bins. Each 
suite is provided with open stoves, chandeliers, and gas fixtures. 

These buildings, by reason of their admirable and convenient location and 
excellent accommodations, have always been regarded as favorite dormitories. . 
A large number of members of the senior class are usually catalogued as occu- 
pants of these rooms. The students who occupy this block are generally those 
who are able to pay a good , price for their rooms and to furnish them accord- 
ingly, the result being that the apartments are handsomely fitted up. The 
owners of the block are oblio;ed to reserve one room in each buildino; for the 
use of a proctor, who is designated by the college faculty. The old and new 
halls are owned respectively by George Coffin Little (class of 1856) and John 
A. Little, residents of New York city, whose agent in Cambridge is Charles 
W. Sever, proprietor of the — 

University Bookstore, on the first floor of Little's Block, No. 464 
Harvard Street. This store was established near the beginning of the present 
century, by William Hilliard, at the southeast corner of Harvard and Holyoke 
streets, in a wooden building which, in 1825, gave place to the present brick 
block. The bookstore continued in that locality until 1850. About 1824 
James Brown became associated with Mr. Hilliard under the firm of Hilliard 
& Brown. In 1832 Lemuel Shattuck was admitted as a partner, and the 
style of the firm was changed to Brown, Shattuck, & Co. In 1833 the busi- 
ness was purchased by James Munroe & Co., and in 1836 it passed into the 
hands of John Owen, who retained it until 1847, when it was purchased by 
George Nichols (class of 1828) who carried on the business for about two 
years, and then transferred it to John Bartlett, whose name it bore for ten 
years. Mr. Bartlett afterwards entered the firm of Little, Brown, & Co., of 
which he is at present an active member. His successors were Charles W. 
Sever and George C. Francis (class of 1854) under the firm name of Sever & 
Francis, which continued until 1871, when Mr. Francis withdrew, on account 
of ill health. The senior partner then assumeTi the entire business, which 
he still retains. The location of the store has been changed several times. 
Originally at the corner of Holyoke and Harvard streets, it was in 1859 re- 



%^-.. 




^-— - i «^'^ 



i:rt 



rimnrmllili-^ill-i' 




I i Ji^Bj. 



I 



H^-^: 




FELTON BUILDING (31). 




LITTLE S BLOCK ^38 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS, '6g 

moved to the corner of Brighton Street and Harvard Square, and thence 
in 1871 to the present locality. The bookstore has always been somewhat 
allied to the college, the original purpose of the establishment having been 
to supply the students with classical text-books, which in the early part of 
the century were difficult to procure except by direct importation. For many 
' years the proprietors held a contract with the corporation to provide the 
students with the necessary books, the college paying for the same and in 
turn charging the amount on the term bills. From the beginning it has been 
the head-quarters for students' supplies. Several works of the professors 
have been published here, as well as numerous miscellaneous books and 
pamphlets. The university catalogue is now published by the proprietor of 
the store, under contract with the college. 

We are now in the vicinity of the '' Old Mile Stone '* that projects above 
the curb on the west side of the college yard near Dane Hall (4). The libra- 
rian emeritus found the stone after it had been for many years lost to public 
view, and planted it near the spot where it was originally placed by the sur- 
veyor, Abraham Ireland, whose initials form part of the inscription. The 
old stone carries us back to ante-revolutionary times, before the West Boston 
bridge was built, when the distance from Cambridge to Boston was eight miles, 
and the road passed through Brighton, Brookline, and Roxbury. 

North of the Mile Stone, on the opposite side of the street, stands the — 

40. First Parish Church, facing the entrance to the college yard. Its 
location is amply suggestive qf its past history and that of the ancient society 
for which it was built, looking as it does on the college, for whose use, like 
the preceding houses of worship, it was in part erected, and on the graves 
of those who once worshiped under its roof or within the walls of its pred- 
ecessors. 

Its erection in 1833 was the result of a negotiation between the parish 
and the college corporation, proposed and conducted by President Quincy. 
*' The Parsonage Lot," so called, now forming part of the college grounds, 
was then purchased by the college. The corporation agreed to provide a 
church of suitable architecture and dimensions at a cost then deemed satis- 
factory, amounting finally to $12,500, in exchange for the parsonage lot of 
four acres, together with tlie land on which the old meeting-house stood, the 
ownership and use of the north gallery in the new church for the officers and 



70 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



members of the college in vacation, and the right of occupying the church 
four days in the year for commencement and other college occasions. Ac- 
cordingly, for thirty-eight years, from 
1834 to 1872, the annual commence- 
ments, the public exercises of the Plii 
Beta Kappa Society and those of the 
Society of the Alumni were held in this 
church, the interior of which was ad- 
mirably constructed both for seeing 
and hearing. Probably during that 
period a greater number of eminent 
men were gathered within its walls on 
various occasions than in any other 
church in the country. 

Three of the college presidents, 
Everett, Sparks, and Walker, on leav- 
ing the presidency, were among the 
most faithful and constant of the wor- 
shipers in the First Parish Church. 
It was in this church that the inau- 
guration of President Everett took place. Just as he was beginning his ad- 
dress, Mr. Webster entered and took his seat on the platform w^ith an ap- 
plauding welcome from the audience, and Mr. Everett, Avith his usual felicity 
and grace, turning to him, said, "I wish 1 had authority to say, ' Expeetatur 
oratio in lingua vernacula a Webster."^ '' 

In this church many choice and brilliant orations and poems have been de- 
livered from year to year. The first poem heard in it was written and de- 
livered by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who, three years after, gave the oration 
before the * B K Society, w4ien one of his hearers, a graduate of the old school, 
puzzled by his peculiar style of thought and speech, exclaimed, " Either this 
man is crazy or I am." It was in this church that Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
then a young man of twenty-four, spoke the poem before the * B K which has 
seldom had its equal on a similar occasion. 

Since 1872 the college, being provided with a suitable place for public oc- 
casions in the Appleton Cha])el and Sanders Theatre, has ceased to use the 
First Parish Church, and has formally relinquished all its rights and privi- 




First Parish Church (40). 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS, 7 1 

leges in connection with it. The First Parish, as its name indicates, is the 
most ancient of the Cambridge rehgious societies, and one of the largest and 
most flourishing of the Unitarian churches in Boston and its vicinity. 

In 1868 the church was thoroughly renovated and the interior remodeled, 
with additional conveniences for religious and social meetings, as well as for 
the Sunday-school, in the vestry adjoining. 

It is to be regretted that it was not built of more substantial material than 
wood. The view of it in front, from the college yard, with its Gothic tower 
an.d spire, is quite pleasing, as well as the side view from North Avenue. 
With plenty of air and hght, its internal arrangements are pleasant and help- 
ful both to speaker and hearer. 

The original records of the First Church, kept by the successive pastors 
from the time of Brattle, in 1696,^ the christening basin presented to him by 
the college students and given by him to the church, and the communion plate, 
are interesting relics of the past. 

The first minister in the present church edifice, and pastor in charge for 
thirty-eight consecutive years, was the Rev. William Newell, D. D., ordained 
in the old meeting-house, May 19, 1830. His successor, the present pastor. 
Rev. F. G. Peabody, was ordained March 31, 1874. 

No doubt the curious stranger will notice the little *' God's acre" with 
moldering and crumbling tombstones, on the north side of the First Parish 
Church. This is known as the — 

41. Town Burying Ground. In 1635 the town ordered it to be paled in, 
and until 1702, while used as a graveyard, it was leased as a sheep pasture. 
Within these few square feet of sod rest the ashes of some men who were the 
guiding minds of their day. Among the epitaphs that should be found there 
are those of Presidents Dunster, Chauncy, Oakes, Leverett, Wadsworth, Hol- 
yoke, Webber, and Joseph Willard ; Pastors Thomas Shepard, Jonathan Mitch- 
ell, Nathaniel Gookin, William Brattle, Timothy Hilliard, and Nathaniel Ap- 
ple ton, who was for sixty- seven years in charge of the First Church, baptiz- 
ing during that long period 2,138 persons and receiving into membership 784 

1 The records previous to this, dating from 16o7, and also the written autobiography of Thomas 
Shepard, are still preserved by the " First Church in Cambridge '■ that now worships in the Shepard 
Memorial Church (44). These ancient books can be seen by strangers who desire to look upon the 
veritable relics of the Puritans. 

A list of church members during the pastorate of Mitchell and in his handwriting, discovered in 
1815 in the Prince collection of manuscripts in the Old South, in Boston, is bound up with the first 
volume of records in possession of the " First Parish Church." 



^2 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



persons. Here also were interred the remains of Rev. Edward Wigglesworth, 
the first Hollis Professor of Divinity, Governor Belcher, the Vassal family, 
Elijah Corlet, '' that memorable old school-teacher," Stephen Dave, the first 
printer in this part of America, Samuel Green, captain of the militia for thirty 
years and manager of the printing-press for fifty years. 

It is rather surprising that the citizens of Cambridge, withr so much wealth 
and culture, should allow this venerable spot to lie unadorned and almost 
totally neglected, and remain a common pathway. Although considerably im- 
proved within twenty years past, it yet remains in appearance not much more 
than an inclosure of many nameless tombs and many broken gravestones, inter- 
spersed with brambles and weeds. 

In 1845 Harvard College renewea the tablet on a tomb over the remains 
of President Dunster, and in 1870 the city erected a neat Scotch granite monu- 
ment in memory of six Cambridge men who fell April 19, 1775, in defense of 
the liberty of the people. » 

On the west side of the Town Burying Ground stands — 
42. Christ Church, fronting on Garden Street. This is the mother Epis- 
copal church, and the oldest existing place of worship of any denomination 
in Cambridge, and it is rich in historical interest. 

The parish was organized in 1759; the first rector, the Rev. East Apthorp, 
was appointed a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 

the same year, and the church 
was opened for worship Oc- 
tober 15, 1761. It was built 
from designs furnished by 
Peter Harrison, the architect 
of King's Chapel, Boston ; 
and, although built of wood, 
it was considered, in its orip:- 
inal proportions, a model of 
architectural beauty. 

The mission was established 
and the church built, as ex- 
Christ Church (42). pressly stated, to provide for 
the spiritual needs of the members of the Church of England resident in Cam- 
bridge, as also for " such students of Harvard Colleore as are of that church." 




I AND ITS SURROUNDINGS, 73 

Special provision has always been made, therefore, in this church for such 
students, and the rector has always regarded himself as officially charged with 
the duty of ministering to them as a pastor, as well as with the rectorship 
of the parish in which Harvard College is located. The students, on their 
part, have ever taken a lively interest in the church, assisting in its minis- 
trations as lay readers, teachers in the Sunday-school, members of the choir, 
and otherwise. 

Prior to the Revolutionary War, Christ Church was the spiritual home of 
the Church of England aristocracy and loyalty. The families to whom the old 
mansions of Cambridge once belonged — the Vassals, Lees, Phippses, Lech- 
meres, and Inmans — here gathered for worship. Mr. Apthorp was succeeded 
by the Rev. Winwood Sarjeant; but when hostilities broke out, rector and 
congregation alike were dispersed as tories and royalists; the Connecticut 
militia were quartered in the church at the time of the battle of Bunker Hill, 
and the leaden pipes of the fine old English organ were melted for bullets. 

When General Washington took command of the army in Cambridge he re- 
moved the troops and had the church cleansed; on Sunday, December 31, 
1775, the church was reopened, Colonel Palfrey of the army reading service 
as a layman, at the request of the general, who attended with Mrs. Washing- 
ton and his military staff. 

From this date, however, there was no resident rector of Christ Church for 
fifty years. For a time it was under the charge of some Boston rector; twice 
it was closed for years and services were wholly suspended ; and, for a good 
part of that period, it was supplied with lay readers by students of Harvard 
College, among whom were several who were afterwards prominent in the 
ministry of the Church, such as Bishops Dehon of South Carolina and Wain- 
wright of New York, the Rev. Drs. Asa Eaton and Stephen H. Tyng. 

In the year 1826 Christ Church, after thorough restoration and repairs, was 
reopened at last for regular and settled services under the charge of the Rev. 
George Otis, then tutor in the college. Mr. Otis was succeeded in turn, at 
short intervals, by young clergymen who have since been well known: the 
venerable Dr. Coit, long of Troy, and now of the Berkeley Divinity School, 
Middletown, Conn.; Bishop Howe of Central Pennsylvania; Bishop Vail of 
Kansas; Dr. Southgate, for some time Missionary Bishop to Turkey; Dr. 
George Leeds, rector of Grace Church, Baltimore; and Bishop Williams of 
Connecticut. In 1839 the Rev. Nicholas Hoppin, D. D., entered upon a rector- 



74 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

ship which continued to 1874. The present rector, the Rev. Wm. Chauncy 
Langdon, D. D., succeeded to the charge January 1, 1876. 

In the year 1857 it was found necessary to set back the chancel end and 
lengthen the church, thus somewhat marring its original proportions ; but its 
general appearance from the Common is unchanged. The interior arrange- 
ments have also been somewhat modified ; the square pews have been re- 
placed by pews of more modern form; the old-fashioned piilpit with its sound- 
ing board and reading desk beneath has also disappeared ; and, finally, the 
organ has lately been brought down from the old choir loft to the corner near 
the chancel. 

The flagon and one covered cup of the silver communion service of Christ 
Church bearing the royal arms were given by William and Mary to King's 
Chapel, Boston. They were in 1772 transferred to this church by Governor 
Hutchinson. The silver alms-basin was the gift, in 1761, of Mrs. Apthorp, 
mother of the first rector. The original Bible and prayer-books are still in the 
possession of the church, two folio service books now standing on the chancel 
window-sill. The original parchment parish register, with its entries dating 
from 1759, is in the possession of the rector. 

Immediately to the right and left on entering the church are two large tab- 
lets, containing the Commandments, Creed, and Lord's Prayer, which were 
brought from old Trinity Church, Boston, when it was taken down in 1828. 

The original church bell was an English gift; but it was recast in 1831. 
The chime of thirteen bells, " The Harvard Chime ^^^ was the gift of alumni of 
the college, upon the completion of the first centenary of the church. 

In the crypt or cellar of the church are still to be seen the family vaults of 
the Vassals. Christ Church faces the — 

42a. Cambridge Common. In 1769 the proprietors of the Common granted 
the land to the town, "to be used as a training field, to lie undivided and 
remain for that use forever." This was the place of arms of the settlers of 
1631, who selected it for their strong fortress and intrenched camp. This 
ground was the muster field of the American army of the Revolution ; and 
here the flag of thirteen stripes was^ first unfurled. George the Third's 
speech, sent out by the Boston gentry, was burned upon this common. This 
was also the place where the colonial army was drawn up for grand parade 
and drill. About the centre of the Common rises the — 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 



75 



43. Soldiers' Monument. In the late civil war Massachusetts furnished 
the first volunteer troops, and 
Cambridge the earliest military 
organization. During the war 
Cambridge furnished 4,588 sol- 
diers, of whom 938 perished. To 
commemorate this record, and 
to perpetuate the memory of the 
valor and patriotism of those 
who lost their lives in the war, 
the city erected this monument. 
The laying of the corner-stone 
took place June 17, 1869, and 
the dedication July 13, 1870. 
The entire height of the monu- 
ment is 55 feet, 8 inches. The 
base has an extreme measure of 
30 feet square, at the centre of 
which projects the main pedes- 
tal, supporting an arched arcade 
or temple, with a roof surmount- 
ed by a column. On the top is 
the statue of a soldier standing 
at ease. There are four granite 
bas-reliefs, representing the four 
arms of service, — navy, caval- 
ry, artillery, and infantry. Four panels are enriched by bas-reliefs of the 
coats-of-arms of the city, state, United States, and Grand Army of the Re- 
public. There are nine tablets. One tablet, placed upon the front of the 
main pedestal, contains the dedicatory inscription, and eight tablets, set in the 
four buttresses, two in each buttress, are inscribed with the names of the sol- 
diers and sailors of Cambridge who died in the service of their country in the 
war for the maintenance of the Union. The cannon around the monument 
were used in the Revolutionary War. 

A short distance west of Christ Church (42), at the corner of Garden and 
Mason streets, is the — 




Soldiers' Monument (43). 



76 HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 

44. Shepard Memorial Church. This is the sixth house of worship occu- 
pied by the First Church in Cambridge, which was founded in 1636 b^^ the 
Rev. Thomas Shepard and his associates. The name of this first minister has 
been given to the meeting-house and to the ecclesiastical society with which 
the First Church is connected. The laying of the corner-stone took place 
April 29, 1871, and the dedication May 22, 1872. The chapel was finished 
in the following year. Both are of stone. One ston^ from the house erected 
in 1756 is built into the walls of this house. The main building is in the Nor- 
man or Romanesque style of architecture, cruciform in shape, and can seat 
1,200 persons. The woodwork is in black walnut. A freestone tablet on 
the north wall contains a condensed history of the church, and one on the 
south wall a list of the ministers of the church. The windows are of cathe- 
dral glass, except one very fine memorial window in the transept. The in- 
terior length of the nave, which terminates in an octagonal apse, is 120 feet. 
The length of the transept is 92 feet, and the height of the tower and spire 
about 170 feet. The spire is surmounted by the cockerel which was placed on 
the New Brick Church in Boston in 1721. The parsonage is in the same 
inclosure with the meeting-house. The present pastor is Rev. Alexander 
McKenzie (class of 1859, and secretary of the board of overseers of Harvard 
College). The location is remarkably fine. The church faces the common 
and the college, and directly in front rises the — 

45. Washington Elm. Drake says of this grand old tree : " Apart from 
its association with a great event, there is something impressive about this 
elm. It is a king among trees; a monarch, native to the soil, whose subjects. 
once scattered abroad upon the plain before us, have all vanished and left it 
alone in solitary state. The masses of foliage which hide in a measure its 
mutilated members, droop gracefully athwart the old highway, and still beckon 
the traveller, as of old, to halt and breathe a while beneath their shade. It is 
not pleasant to view the decay of one of these Titans of primeval growth. 
It is too suggestive of the waning forces of man, and of that 

' Last scene of all, 
That ends this strange, eventful history. - 

As a shrine of the Revolution, a temple not made with hands, we trust the 
old elm wiU long survive, a sacred memorial to nations yet to come. We 
need such monitors in our public places to arrest our headlong race, and bid 
us calmly count the cost of the empire we possess. We shall not feel the 




SHEPARD MEMORIAL CHURCH (44). WASHINGTON ELM (45). 



78 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



worse for such introspection, nor could we have a more impressive counselor. 
The memory of the great is with it and around it; it is indeed on consecrated 
ground. When the camp was here, Washington caused a platform to be built 
among the branches of this tree, where he was accustomed to sit and survey 
with his glass the country around." In front of the iron railing previously 
placed there by Rev. Daniel Austin, stands a granite tablet, erected by the 
city of Cambridge, containing an inscription, written by Henry W. Longfellow, 
as follows : — 

UNDER THIS TREE 

W^ASHINGTON 

FIRST TOOK COMMAND 

OF THE 

AMERICAN ARMY, 

JULY 3d, 1775. 

A century after Washington unsheathed his sword beneath the elm, the people 
of Cambridge, in commemoration of that event, celebrated the day with be- 
coming enthusiasm. At that time the stately and revered tree was profusely 
covered with flowers and ether decorations. 

West of the Common, on Waterhouse Street, the second house north of 
Garden Street, is the — 

46. Waterhouse House, which bears the marks of great age, and is prob- 
ably one of the oldest houses now standing in Cambridge. It resembles the 
houses built by the early 
settlers, and has an admi- 
rable location looking over 
the Common toward the 
College Yard. Some relics 
of the ' ' American Jenner," 
and of an even earlier oc- 
cupant than he, still remain 
here. In one room is a 
clock surmounted by the 
symbolic cow. At the head 
of the staircase stands an 
old clock with an inscrip- 
tion which shows that Peter ,., ^ , u ..f.. 

Waterhouse House (46). 

Oliver, former chief justice 

of the province, presented it in 1790 to Dr. Waterhouse. The old time-keeper 




AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 79 

requests its possessor to wind it on Christmas and the Fourth of July. In 
another room hangs a crayon portrait of Mrs. Waterhouse, the doctor's mother, 
painted by Allston when a student of Harvard. Another occupant of the house 
was Henry Ware, whose portrait adorns the walls. It is probable that Will- 
iam Vassal, who owned and occupied the house before the war, has left some 
relics there. Afterwards, Rev. Winwood Sarjeant, a former rector of Christ 
Church, lived in this house. Dr. Waterhouse, whose name is attached to the 
house, was one of the first physicians to introduce vaccination in this country. 
The present occupant is Horace E. Scudder, one of the writers for the "Atlan- 
tic Monthly." 

On Garden Street, at the junction of Concord Avenue, is the — 

47. State Arsenal. The oldest buildings were erected in 1817. It served 
during the war as a storehouse and cartridge manufactory. Troops were 
also stationed there. At present it is not used for mihtary purposes. The 
Cambridge Dramatic Club makes use of one building for private theatricals. 

A short distance beyond the Arsenal, on Garden Street, at the corner of 
Linnean Street, is the — 

48. Botanic Garden. (See page 55.) Diagonally opposite is the — 

49. Astronomical Observatory. (See page 56.) Passing through Bond 
Street, on the east side of the Observatory, to Concord Avenue, and thenoe 
into Buckingham Street, we soon reach Brattle Street. Going westward as 
far as Appleton Street, and then through Highland Street, we pass — 

49a. The Reservoir, at the corner of Reservoir Street. It was rebuilt and 
enlarged in 1866-67, and covers an area of nearly one and a third acres. Its 
capacity is 5,375,330 gallons. The elevation of the coping is 92 feet above 
the city base, and the top of the stand-pipe, or tower, 136 feet, — thus prac- 
tically raising the reservoir to that additional height. Into this tower the 
water is pumped from Fresh Pond by means of two Worthington engines 
worked alternately. At certain times each day the water is sufficiently ele- 
vated to fill the highest tanks in the city. The capacity of each of these- 
pumps is 5,000,000 gallons in twenty-four hours. The reservoir supplies the 
five wards of Cambridge. Owing to the fine view which its elevated position 
commands, it is a favorite resort on pleasant evenings. The tower, which 
affords a beautiful prospect, is usually locked, but permission to ascend it can 
be readily obtained from the superintendent or the person in charge. 

Turning to the left, into Fayerweather Street, at its foot, we reach — 



8o 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



50. ElmTvood, — the Lowell Homestead. The grounds front on both 
Elmwood Avenue and Brattle Street. The house was probably built as early 
as 1760. The surroundings' retain many traces of the original features; the 
splendid grove of pines, the noble elms, — that give rise to the name " Elm- 
wood," — the old barn and outhouses, together with a remnant of the old or- ' 
chard, remain to indicate what had been there. 

Thomas Oliver, the last of the English lieutenant-governors, resided here 
in ante-revolutionary times. The following explains his resignation: — 

"- My house at Cambridge being surroundedTby four thousand people, in com- 
pliance with their com- 
"/!_. - '^.1 '. mands I sign my name 

Thomas Oliver." 

After the battle of 
Bunker Hill the house 
served as a hospital, 
and the field opposite 
for a burial-ground. 

Elbridge Gerry, the 
democratic governor, 
and later vice-presi- 
dent, dwelt here dur- 
ing his official terms; 
from his name the 
word " gerrymander " 
Elmwood (50). is derived. 

Gerry's successor to the estate was Rev. Charles Lowell, the father of 
James Russell Lowell, the poet (class of 1838). In this house " The Big- 
low Papers " were writteil. Elmwood, now the property of Professor Lowell, 
Minister to Spain, embraces thirteen acres, charmingly situated and beauti- 
fully improved. Across the road, on the south, begins — 

50a. Mount Auburn, one of the largest and most beautiful cemeteries in 
the world. The earliest meeting on the subject of a cemetery near the city of 
Boston was held in November, 1825, when a design that was submitted is said 
to have met with unanimous approval. In 1830 an offer of " Sweet Auburn" 
for S6,000 was obtained. In 1831 a general meeting was called "to consider 
the details of a plan about to be carried into execution." It was then voted 




AND ITS SURROUNDINGS, 8 1 

to purchase the property for an '' experimental garden and rural cemetery," 
provided one hundred subscribers, at S60 each, could be secured. A commit- 
tee of twenty was also appointed, including Justice Story, Daniel Webster, 
Charles Lowell, Jacob Bigelow, Samuel Appleton, Edward Everett, Abbott 
Lawrence, and others. The land was bought, and the fee vested in the 
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which was authorized by the State to 
hold property for cemetery and garden purposes. The consecration took 
place on Saturday, September 24, 1831. A temporary amphitheatre was 
erected. An audience of nearly 2,000 persons was seated among the trees, 
adding a scene of picturesque beauty to the impressive solemnity of the occa- 
sion. The first choice of lots was sold at auction November 28, 1831. In 
1835 the property was transferred to the " Proprietors of the Cemetery of 
Mount Auburn," a society incorporated March 31, 1835. 

There are more than thirty miles of avenues and paths through beautiful 
hills and vales, lined with conspicuous and noteworthy tombs, monuments, and 
statues. The entrance gate, after an Egyptian model, chiseled from Quincy 
granite, is on the north front, whJch has an imposing iron raiUng along its 
entire length. The highest mound in the cemetery is 125 feet above the level 
of Charles River, that winds about the southeastern boundary. Upon this 
mound is the tower, 60 feet high, from which can be obtained one of the best 
views of the environs of Boston. The chapel is built of granite, in the 
Gothic style. In it are several marble statues. Special tickets for strangers 
who desire to drive into the cemetery must be obtained from one of the officers 
of the corporation. The gates are open to any one on foot from sunrise to 
sunset every day except Sundays and holidays; but persons holding proprie- 
tors' or special tickets can obtain admission at any time. 

Turning homeward, we pass through Brattle Street, which is the modern 
name of a road that was the great western thoroughfare at the time when 
the head-quarters of the colonial army were in Cambridge. This street was 
then known as Tory Eow, and the pecuhar fitness of this designation will be 
learned as we pass the old landmarks. Diagonally opposite ^'Elmwood" 
(50), on Brattle Street, is the — 

51. Fayerweather House, built about the middle of the last century. 

Captain George Ruggles, one of the rich Cambridge tories who lived on 

Brattle Street before the Revolution, was its owner until 1774, when he sold 

it to Thomas Fayerweather, who occupied it till his death, and by whose 

6 



82 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



name it is commonly known. It finally passed into the hands of William 
W«lls (class of 1796), a fine classical scholar, and the literary partner of 
the well-known publishing firm of Wells & Lilly in Boston. His establish- 
ment having been destroyed by the Court Street fire in 1825, he purchased 
the Fayerweather House in 1828, which he used many years as a boarding 
and day school for the preparation of boys for college. Among his distin- 
guished pupils whose memories go back to the old place are Richard H. 

Dana, Jr., James R. Low- 
ell, T. Wentworth Higgin- 
son, William W. Story, J. 
F. W. Ware, and William 
M. Hunt. The house, like 
others of its time, built of 
substantial materials, is in 
excellent condition, and 
surrounded with noble 
trees and pleasant grounds. 
It is still owned by the 
Wells family, but is at 
present occupied by H. 
Van Brunt (class of 1854), 
the well-known architect. 




Fayerweather House (51). 



On the same side of Brattle Street we next reach the — 
52. Lee House, said to be the oldest now standing in Cambridge. It is 
large, plain, and square, and is supposed to have been built about two hun- ' 
dred years ago, on a frame brought over from England. One of the evidences 
of its age is the clay mortar laying of the great chimney that rises through the 
centre of the house. The lower rooms have massive beams in the ceilings ; all 
are low, yet commodious. Some of the walls are covered with landscape paper, 
one of them evidently very ancient. The owner at the outbreak of the Rev- 
olution was Judge Joseph Lee, by whose name -the house is now known. He 
took refuge in Boston during the siege. This was one of the few houses on 
Tory Row that were not confiscated. After the war it was reoccupied by Judge 
Lee. For the past twenty-five years it has been owned and occupied by George 
Nichols, a graduate of the class of 1828. 

Farther down, on the same side of Brattle Street, at the northwest corner 
of Sparks Street, stands the — 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 



«3 




Lee House ( 52 



53. Riedesel House, so modern in its appearance that one would scarcely 
believe that the upper sto- 
ries were built about 1 750. 
The house was occupied 
first by Eichard Lechmere, 
a Boston distiller, and aft- 
erwards by Jonathan Sew- 
all — both royalists. The 
latter, as a friend and asso- 
ciate of John Adams, urged 
him to remain with the 
royalist party, but Adams 
replied to him : ' ' The die 
is now cast; I have passed 
the Rubicon; swim or sink, 
live or die, survive or per- 
ish with my country, is my 
unalterable determination." 

The house was mobbed in 1774, and Sewall fled to Boston. Baron Riede- 
sel, with the Baroness, was quartered here, after the surrender of Bourgoyne's 
, , , . , army of which he 

was an officer. Until 
quite recently a pane 
of glass in one of the 
windows contained 
the autograph " Rie- 
desel," that had 
probably been cut 
with a diamond by 
the Baroness. 
• It is now the resi- 
dence of John Brew- 
ster, a prominent 
Boston banker, into 
whose hands it pas.-- 
""ed in 1845. Since the present owner acquired the property the original house 
has been raised, and an additional story built underneath. 




84 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



A short distance below, on the same side of Brattle Street, is — 
54. Washington's Head-quarters, or LongfelloTv's Home, the most 
noteworthy house in Cambridge. It is in fact a wooden mansion lined with 
brick, and was built in 1739 by Colonel John Vassal. The exterior sim- 
ply carries one back to the ante-revolutionary period ; but the interior gives a 
strong impression of comfort and refinement. The surroundings are charm- 
ingly picturesque. In 1775 Vassal became a fugitive under British protection, 
and Colonel John Glover, with the Marblehead regiment, took possession. 




Washington's Head-quarters, or Longfellow's Honne (54). 

AVashington established his head-quarters here in July, 1775, and remained 
for eight months. More noted patriots of 1776 entered this house than any 
other. Mrs. Washington and her suite arrived at head-quarters in December, 
1775. We learn that Mrs. Washington held her levees and gave her dinner 
parties, while Washington with his staff was deliberating on the operations of 
the army destined to create a free republic. Franklin dined at this house 
when he came to settle the establishment of the colonial army. Washington 
revisited the house in 1789. 

After the war the first proprietor was Nathaniel Tracy, who had been en- 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 85 

gaged in privateering. He fitted out the first private armed vessel that sailed 
from an American port, and owned the principal share in a number of cruisers 
that wrought great damage to the British marine. It is related that after he . 
had lost some forty ships he was quite despondent, and, while discussing with 
his brother how they should obtain the means of subsistence for their families, 
an unexpected vessel sailed into the harbor bringing a prize valued at £20,000. 

The next owner was Thomas Russell, who, as the story goes, made a break- 
fast of a sandwich consisting of a hundred dollar bill between two slices of 
bread. In 1791 Andrew Craigie, the apothecary-general of the continental 
army, bought the house with 150 acres of land, upon which was the Vassal 
House (59), for £3,750. Among the guests of Dr. Craigie were Talleyrand 
and the Duke of Kent. In 1833 Jared Sparks and Willard Phillips resided 
here. Edward Everett and Joseph E. Worcester, the lexicographer, also 
lived in this house. In 1837 Henry W. Longfellow became an inmate of the 
house, and in 1843 he purchased it, with eight acres of the surrounding land. 

In this delightful neighborhood, between Longfellow's Home and Mason 
Street, lies the property of the — 

^S, EPISCOPAL THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL OF MASS^ which 
was founded in 1867, upon an endowment given by Benjamin T. Reed of Bos- 
ton. Although it possesses many advantages from its proximity to Harvard, 
it is not connected with the latter. The institution has a faculty of five pro- 
fessors; and the requirements for admission are, besides evidence of fitness 
for the ministry, candidateship for orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
with full literary qualifications, or the holding of a college diploma, or the 
submission to an examination in the following subjects, namely: classics, men- 
tal and moral sciences, logic, and rhetoric. The dean of the faculty is Rev. 
George Zabriskie Gray, D. D. , and the secretary is Rev. A. Y. G. Allen. 
The outlay for buildings and land thus far amounts to $220,000, and the 
buildings comprise St. John's Memorial Chapel, Reed Hall, and Lawrence 
Hall, which are described below. A new building is soon to be erected be- 
hind the chapel for the purposes of a refectory. Referring to the illustration 
on page 86, the building to the right is — 

56. St. John's Memorial Chapel, which was built, in 1870, by Robert M. 
Mason of Boston, as a memorial of his wife and his brother, the Rev. Charles 
Mason, D. D. It accommodates about 450 persons, and is kept open, not 
only for the use of the school, but also as a freq church for the students of 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



87 



Harvard, and such others as desire to attend its daily and Sunday services. 
To the left is — 

57. Lawrence Hall, erected, in 1873, by Amos A. Lawrence of Boston. 
It is the dormitory of the school, and contains suites of rooms for twenty stu- 
dents. In the centre is — 

58. Reed Hall, which contains a beautiful library room, and six lecture 
rooms. It is named after the founder of the school, who provided the means 
to erect the building in 1875. 

All of these buildings are of stone, and fitted up with taste and complete- 
ness. They are worthy of an inspection by visitors, who will be readily ad- , 
mitted upon application to 
the janitor. 

Opposite the Theologi- 
cal School, on the south 
side of Brattle Street, 
stands the — 

59. Vassal House. It 
is one of the oldest houses 
now standing, and while 
the interior has all the 
charms and comforts of 
old age, the walls are sur- 
rounded by picturesque 
grounds. In 1842 the east 
front was injured by fire, 
and its original appear- 
ance has been but partially restored. Fj*om time to time additions and 
alterations have been made, yet the main building preserves much of its 
first design. In 1717 Jonathan Belcher, at that time a merchant of Boston, 
and afterwards governor of the province, inherited the place. A later pro- 
prietor was Colonel John Vassal, the eld^r, by whom it was conveyed to 
Major Henry Vassal. The widow of the latter, nee Penelope Boyall, fled from 
liL'rhome at the outbreak of the war in such haste that she had not time even 
to restore to her friends a young companion, whom she consequently was 
compelled to take with her. Part of the personal effects were confiscated by 
Colonel Stark, and a part passed into Boston. The^^arns and outbuildings 
were used for the colony forage. The property was not confiscated, as has 




Vassal Houso (59). 



88 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



been sometimes asserted. This house was, most probably the head-quarters of 
the medical department of the American army, as well as the residence ^nd 
prison of Dr. Benjamin Church. The cutting of '' B. Church, Jr.'' on a door 
in the second story would seem to indicate the room in which he was detained. 
At present it is the residence of the owner, Samuel Batchelder, who, now in 
his ninety-fourth year, is the oldest living inhabitant of Cambridge. 
Farther down, on the same side of the street, is the — 
60. Brattle House. The date of its erection is probably about 1740. 

The beautiful grounds that 
at one time surrounded it 
comprised the famous Brat- 
tle Mall, which included 
a charming promenade that 
was a popular resort. The 
estate belonged to Wilham 
Brattle (class of 1722), a 
man of various professions 
and eminent in all. He was 
at different times clergyman, 
physician, lawyer, and ma- 
jor-general. His father was 
Bev. William Brattle (class 




Brattle House (60). 



of 1680), the noted Cambridge clergyman, and his uncle was Thomas Brattle 
of Boston, treasurer of Harvard College for twenty-five years, and a prominent 
merchant, whose liberahty toward the Brattle Street Church caused the 
church and street to be named after him. From this family Brattle Street, 
Cambridge, derives its name. Thomas Brattle (class of 1760), son of Will- 
iam Brattle, made his grounds the most celebrated in New England, and 
although a fugitive in 17 75, nevertheless, upon his return after the war, he 
had his political disabilities removed. The drowning of several students, 
while bathing, caused Brattle, with his usual kind-heartedness, to erect a free 
bath at the foot of the street formerly known as Bath Lane, now Ash Street. 
General Mifflin, while quartermaster to the continental army, occupied the 
house, which, during his occupancy, was visited by many persons distinguished 
in the Revolution. Samuel Appleton, a Boston merchant, was proprietor of 
the place at one time. Abraham W. Fuller, who reUnquished his business as 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 




New City Building (61). 



89 

a merchant of Boston to enter the legal profession, owned and occupied the 
house for about seventeen ; 

years. The property be- 
longs to the venerable Sam- 
uel Batchelder, who owns 
also the Vassal House (59), 
in which he resides. 

At the corner beyond is 
the University Press, a 
large four - story wooden 
building. To the south of 
this building stands the — 

61. New City Building, 
on the south side of Mount 
Auburn Street. It is a large 
brick structure erected, in 
1876, at a cost of about 
$75,000. The building is used as a police court, pohce station, engine house, 
ward-meeting house, several city offices, art school, and day school. The in- 
terior is well finished, and 
the whole is well adapted 
to the purposes for which 
it was erected. The tower 
on the main portion of the 
building, contains an il- 
luminated clock. In the 
upper stories are the bat- 
teries and signals of the 
fire department. 

62. Hicks House, on 
the southeast corner of 
Winthrop and Dunster 
streets. The chief historic 
event connected with this 
house is the fact that its 




Hicks House (62) 



owner and occupant at the time of the Revolution was John Hicks. He was an 



.90 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



ardent patriot, and is said to have assisted in the destruction of tea in Bos- 
ton Harbor, December 16, 1773. Although exempted from miUtary service on 
account of his age, he enhsted as a volunteer. He was one of the six citizens^ 
of Cambridge who were killed on the day of the so-called '' Concord Fight," 
and to whose memory the city erected a monument in 1870, in the Town Bury- 
ing Ground (41). The widow of Mr. Hicks lived to the advanced age of 
ninety-nine years, and many persons now living have heard from her lips an 
account of that memorable day. This house was built in 1760. The north 
room was used for a commissary office by the direction of General Washington 
during the stay of the army in Cambridge. Professor Sidney Willard owned 
and occupied the house for many years. 

63. St. Paul's Church, on Mt. Auburn Street, corner of Holyoke Street. 

This house was originally dedicated - 
on the 23d of February, 1831. 

It is not within the scope of this 
work to give an account of the man- 
ufacturing interests of Cambridge. 
One, however, is so closely allied to 
her educational interests that we de- 
sire to mention it. We refer to the 
printing business. The first print- 
ing-press in America, north of Mex- 
ico, was set up in 1639 in Cambridge. 
At that time printers gained a foot- 
hold here, and have retained it ever 
since. To-day there are three ex- 
tensive firms, from whose establish- 
ments thousands of books of every 
description are annually sent broad- 
cast over the country. The largest 
of these concerns is — 

64. The Riverside Press, where are manufactured the books published 
by Houghton, Osgood, & Co., as well as many publications by other firms. It 

1 Another one of this party was Moses Richardson, who also was exempt from service. His house 
is still standing. It is the first honse east of Thayer Commons Hall (19), and can be seen in the 
illustration on page 35. For about three quarters of a century it was occupied by Royal Morse. 




St. Paul's Church (63). 



AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 9 1 

is situated on the banks of the Charles River, in Cambridge, about three 
quarters of a mile south of Harvard College. The visitor from Boston reaches 
the Press by the River Street horse car, the Brighton horse car, or the Pearl 
Street horse car, leaving Bowdoin Square about every ten minutes, the time 
from Boston being just half an hour. The estate held by the firm comprises 
between three and four acres, lying between Charles River, on which it abuts, 
and Blackstone Strfeet. The principal building is four stories high, with a 
front of a hundred feet and a depth of a hundred and sixty feet. In this are 
contained the offices, and all the departments of printing, binding, stereotyp- 
ing, electrotyping, lithography, and plate printing. At the rear are a large 
fire-proof warehouse fi)r the storage of sheet-stock and paper, a smaller fire- 
proof safe, wholly above ground, for the storage of stereotype plates, and a 
building containing the engine and stereotype foundry. The water front is 
protected by a stone pier allowing ample wharf room and a fine, open view 
of the river, meadows, and distant hills. The counting-room occupies a 
portion of the front second story of the principal building. Here are the 
rooms of the proprietors, desks for the superintendents of the several de- 
partments, a library for the use of the work-people (who also have a well- 
established savings department), a telegraph station, safes for MSS., and 
communication with all parts of the building by means of bells and tubes. 

The business of manufacturing is carried on at the Riverside Press, Cam- 
bridge ; but the head-quarters of the firm as a publishing and bookselling con- 
cern are at 220 Devonshire Street (Winthrop Square), Boston, where, in 
chambers above their elegant and commodious counting-rooms, the firm also 
conducts the heliotype business, which has attained large dimensions. 

Among the various ways of reaching Harvard College from Boston, one of 
the most interesting, although not the shortest, is the — 

65. Brookline Bridge Route. Starting from the southeast corner of Bos- 
ton Common and going Avest on Boylston Street, we pass in full view of several 
elegant family hotels, the Young Men's Christian Union^ Masonic Temple, 
Boston Public Library, Boston Common, — containing the new Soldier's Mon- 
ument, and the Old Cemetery fronting on Boylston Street, — The Public 
Garden, Boston and Providence Railroad Depot, Arhngton Street Church, 
Central Congregational Church, Sisters' Notre Dame Academy, Society of 

1 Italicized place.s are on the left hand, and the rest on the right hand side. 



92 HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 

Natural History Building, Institute of Technology, Hotel Brunswick. ^^ Museum 
of Fine Arts, Trinity Church, Second Unitarian Church, Chauncy Halt 
School, New Old South Church. Crossing Clarendon Street to the New 
Brattle Square Unitarian Church, we pass through Commonwealth Avenue — -' 
with its lovely park along its entire length — to Chester Park Street. We then 
cross to Beacon Street. Near the intersection of these streets is the place 
designated for the entrance to the proposed Back Bay Park, and in this vicin- 
ity it is thought that a new bridge connecting Boston and Cambridge will be 
built. Thus far the route has been through the Back Bay district, where 
handsome residences are seen on every side. Continuing on Beacon Street, 
Boston's fashionable drive, we soon reach the fork in the road where it 
branches in three directions, the one on the left towards Jamaica Plain, that 
in the centre towards Newton Centre, while the one on the right, which we 
follow, leads to Brighton. Crossing Brookline Bridge we obtain a charming 
view of Charles Biver, and of Boston and its environs. The bridge terminates 
on the Cambridge side in Brookline Street, and at a short distance is Putnam 
Avenue, which leads directly to the vicinity of the college. Passing through 
Putnam Avenue, we obtain a good view of the Riverside Press (64) and 
the Boat House (30). 

1 66. Hotel Brunswick, Boston, situated upon Boylston Street, corner of Clarendon Street, is one 
of the most comfortable and handsomely furnished hotels ia the world. The building, which is es- 
sentially fire-proof, is 200 by 125 feet, six stories high, with basement, and contains 350 rooms. The 
structure is of brick, with heavy sandstone trimmings. The principal finish of the first two stories 
is of black walnut. On the right of the principal entrance are two parlors for the use of ladies, 
and on the left of the main entrance is the gentlemeii's parlor. On the easterly side of the hotel is 
the new dining hall dedicated upon Whittier-s seventieth birthday, when the proprietors of the 
Atlantic Monthly gave the dinner at which so many noted American writers were present. On the 
right of the ladies' entrance is the large dining hall, 80 feet long by 48 feet wide. Both dining halls 
have marble tile floors, the w^alls being Pompeian red and the ceiling frescoed to correspond. 

The five stories above are divided into suites of rooms and single rooms, all conveniently arranged, 
and provided with all modern improvements, including open fire-places, besides steam heatinj? 
apparatus. Everything seems to have been done to make the house home-like, comfortable, and 
attractive, and free from the usual cheerless appearance of hotels. 

The cost of the building will come close to a million dollars. 

The Brunswick was built in 1874, and enlarged in 1876. The architects were Peabody and Stearns. 
It is owned by Henry Bigelow Williams (class of 1865), who also owns Felton Building (31). The 
lessee and manager of the hotel is J. W. Wolcott, who has furnished it in lavish and magnificent 
style. It is conducted on the American plan, and under the skilled hands of the lessee has proved 
to be such an hotel as Boston had never seen before. 

President Hayes, when attending Harvard Commencement, in 1877, with his family and suite, occu- 
pied rooms at the Brunswick. The rooms Avere wholly refurnished and the hotel elaborately deco- 
rated for the occasion. Governor Rice resides at this hotel. 



CHARLES A. SMITH & CO. 
MERCHANT TAILORS, 

AND DIRECT IMPORTERS OF 

FINE LONDON AND PARIS GOODS 

FOR GENTLEMEN'S WEAR. 



All gentlemen are invited to call and inspect our selections, which 

comprise 

THE LARGEST STOCK OF 

FINE FOREIGN GOODS 

EVER OFFERED IN THIS MARKET. 



SPECIAL INDUCEMENTS TO CASH BUYERS. 



CHARLES A. SMITH & CO. 

|lcrc|)ant bailors, 

18 AND 20 SCHOOL STREET, 

BOSTON. 



Proctor & Moody, 



Stationers, 

Engravers, 



37 West St., 
Boston. 



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ENGRAVING, 
PAPER, CARDS, X) 
ENVELOPES, 



^ 



CLASS-DAYS, 

WEDDINGS, 

CORRESPONDENCE. 



Proctor & Moody. 37 West Street, Boston, 




MEN'S NECK DRESSINGS, 

UNDERWEAR, HOSIERY, 

ENGLISH SILK UMBRELLAS, 

And Walking Sticks, 

FULL LINE OF 

KID AND DOGSKIN GLOVES. 

THE REGENT SHIRT our Specialty. 
NICHOLS & LASTER, 

67 Tremont Street (Tremont House), 
BOSTON. 



HATTERS, 

Importers, and dealers in fine 

American, English, and 

French Hats, 

UMBRELLAS, &-c,, 

Adapted for Gents, Ladies, 
and Children. 







FURRIERS. 

Their Dress Furs, for 
Ladies, Gents, and Children, 
embrace all the most desira- 
ble kinds in fashionable use. 
They make a specialty of Man- 
ufacturing to order articles to 
meet the wants of patrons. 



BOSTON. 



UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL CAPS MADE TO ORDER. 



D. P. ILSLEY & Co., 

385 WASHINGTON STREET (OPPOSITE FRANKLIN). 




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FURNISHINGS FOR STUDENT ROOMS. 

CHAMBER SETS, CUSP ADORES, SMOKING SETS, CLOCKS.j 
GLASSWARE, AND STUDY LAMPS. 

All Articles in Pottery and Porcelain suitable for Gifts. 

89, 91, & 93 Franklin Street, cor. Devonshire, Boston. 



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